Weeds

Click on the photo for a large view of a lovely collection of weeds.There's a place where husband and I go walking about once a week, near a Wal-mart. A huge argument among the citizenry took place about 7 years ago, when the decision was made to build the Wal-mart there. A seasonal stream runs past the site, and there was talk of disrupting the environment and routing that stream through a culvert. People went ballistic. So the developer went to great lengths to protect the stream zone. It now runs alongside the access road, full of wildlife, weeds, and, at some times of the year, woolly aphids. (I had to keep that alliteration going!)

Sometimes, like this morning, my mind feels pretty much like that zone. There are so many weedy thoughts springing up. Some of them bear flowers, and some are prickly thistles. Some just kind of fluff out and blow away, and others settle in and take over even though I don't want them there, seeding fear and choking out the sprouts of unselfishess and caring.

I wish I had a tidy, well-mown and cultivated mind. But I don't. It's a natural riparian zone with various things fluttering through it, one or two building a nest just over there. I suppose you could look at the sun backlighting it and think some of it is beautiful. Or you could focus in one one or two particularly pleasing plants. Or, like some visitors, you could just see it as one big weedy mess.

The best way I've found to tend this multicolored mix is to spend some time in the mornings reading the Bible and journaling my thoughts to God. Over and over that focuses my sight on particular thoughts that make the day beautiful. For example, yesterday there was the reminder in Psalms that life is messy and enemies lurk, but the focus needs to be on praising the Lord in His splendor. I came back to that a couple of times--not as often as I would wish I had--during the day, and it helped to reset my priorities.

And so today I begin all over, returning to Psalms for focus, recalibrating my lenses, pulling out a few weeds and being reminded of where my gaze should be fixed, all through the day.