I saw this quote by Gordon B. Hinckley and it literally grabbed me behind the ears and pulled me in. You see I’ve been attempting to develop a couple spots in my yard and hopefully one day be able to say that I have a garden and am gardening.

After a months holiday (December 2011 to January 2012) I returned to find quite a number of weeds in a tiny area that I created just for jump up and kiss me’s and in an area that I actually paid to have landscaped.

I set about one Saturday morning to try to salvage what I could, till the soil and replant the survivors.

Man was I proud! The very next day I saw a pink flower emerge and I smiled to myself. I’d done it! I have the green thumb just like my mother and my grandmother. I saved the plants. The other colors will emerge soon. Good job Gis! Mission accomplished!

Don’t ask me why I thought that my work was finished.

Yes, I knew I had to water the plants but the rainy season seemed to be upon us so I was comfortable.

As I came down my driveway yesterday I glanced at the jump up and kiss me bed and realized that I could not tell plant from weed. Didn’t I “just” weed this patch? “Just” of course being a month ago :). It was evening so I waited until this morning to go see the condition of the bed.

This is what I saw…

My jump and kiss me bed is covered  with weeds. You mean I have to go pull them out again??!!!! I don’t want to. I want a bed of beautiful flowers.

But isn’t that how I treat my own life sometimes? Ok – MOST TIMES! 🙂

I do the “work” whatever that work is – one time and then think that this is all it would take to create lasting change. One shot at hard work and I’m done.

If however I don’t regularly pay attention and remove the weeds when they’re manageable, like once a week, then I am going to find that eventually the weeds WILL take over my garden. If I don’t pay attention to when the weeds reemerge in my own life (the habits that don’t help but hinder) and work at keeping the good habits in place so that my talents and passions (the beautiful flowers) are not crowded out then before I know it I would slip right back into behaviors that take me backward and towards becoming my best self.

So it’s back to weeding AGAIN! Of course I was a little dramatic and said that I would pull up everything and start over. But then I saw that there were still flowers and probably potential flowers that I am not seeing. So I will just keep what I have, weed today, and weed again in two weeks time.

And so it is with life. The flowers are an indication that we have done some work – we are making progress, replacing self defeating behaviors with more positive fulfilling ones. And while we continue to nurture those that we do see we must continue taking out the other weeds so that they don’t grow so profusely that we no longer see our gifts and lose hope in ourselves.

First jump and kiss me pic from http://www.caribbeangarden.blogspot.com the other two are from ‘ahem’ MY GARDEN! 🙂