I.amN.otD.eadY.et children so listen up!

I’m not going to lie. After a week of traveling, a stay at Rochester, and a family reunion we came home to a yard full of weeds and overgrown grass.

I was devastated.

It seems like the rains and the sun brought new and multiple weeds to the garden like I have never witnessed before. The grass around the trees and posts in the yard was two feet tall never had it been weed-wacked before we left for our week’s cruise (more about that next week).

Our recently mowed lawn now needed mowing again. We didn’t even have time to pick up the grass clippings I use for mulching my garden. I see a pattern forming here.

But my gardens, wow. You couldn’t see the cucumbers because of the weeds. The beans I worked so diligently to plant didn’t even bother coming up. In a few weeks, you won’t be able to see the garlic I planted last October for all the lamb’s quarter.

In our absence, a 36+inch garter snake left his winter wrapper and escaped to the summer warmth in our high tunnels. A couple of the many turkeys we harbor all year long found their way to the only couple of bare spots in the large tunnel to build bathtubs. For you city folks who don’t know turkeys take dust baths. If you have ever seen them shake off that dust it’s like Pig Pen on steroids. Turkeys are fun to watch, but I am not too happy about them being inside my high tunnel.

Once again, overwhelmed by the task ahead I thought, “I can do this, one bite at a time, just like eating an elephant.” However, after a few days, that elephant seemed more like a dinosaur.

It has to be done, but I am quickly losing heart.

It’s because this cancer has changed my life. I no longer have the upper body strength to lift a 25-pound bag of flour. I tire easily and feel winded when I over-exert myself. I have good days and then there are days filled with nausea and no appetite. If you don’t eat you have no fuel to run.

These days I ruminate about what I’m supposed to be doing. What is God telling me through my altered health? It’s impossible to allow the weeds to take over the garden because I put so much work into planting and growing transplants this year.

But, how does one scale back from a lifetime of investing in wanting more ground to grow?

Well, that remains to be seen. After reading blogs about weed control, I took to heart the one comment that stuck out, “Take your time.”

I thought I didn’t have much time with the tiny seedlings drowning in weeds, so I started there. Slowly I began searching for cucumber sprouts and then carefully on my hands and knees began hoeing them free with my onion hoe.

Then I began formulating a plan for replanting my green beans. The garlic has to fend for itself as it is already shooting out scapes. Isn’t it too early? I guess not, we are close to the summer equinox.

I also replanted an area of bug-bitten peppers with marigolds and some extra tomatoes. I work when I can and sleep when I have to. Is it perfect? Is it ideal? Not. But I’m plugging away with help from JC.

Once the plants become strong, and large, enough to tower over the weeds, they are on their own. After harvest and the enormous task of cleaning out the spent plants, I have to decide how to work smarter and not harder. Or…

I have these moments of giving up and thinking about weaving and writing. These are the things that don’t sap so much of my strength. I have two books started that will take some discipline to finish, but the words dance around in my head every day waiting to be placed on paper.

What can I do with all the things I have made filling bins stored under my bed? I like to learn how to do things, so I’m constantly making things I won’t use. How can I change my habits?

One thing I am doing is to put my grandchildren first. Any opportunity I have to spend time with them, even if watching a game or a school program, I am there on my good days.

I wrote a blog post about weeds a long time ago. Somehow I mentioned weeding in a heavenly garden. It was pointed out to me by a few people wiser than myself that there would be no weeds in Jesus’ renewed world. You plant your seed, and it springs forth weed-free.

I’m questioning that may or may not be the case, because as we all have witnessed this past month, “God waters weeds, too.”