Weeding the Garden - Metaphor for Life?

Today was "weed the garden Sunday." Truthfully, it was not a task I was eagerly anticipating and I did not fly from my slumber early this morning singing "Oh what a glorious day! I get to weed the garden!" But since I'd procrastinated this job for a few weeks and, in a few cases, the weeds were taller than my plants, today was the day. Oh, and of course, there's the added benefit that tomorrow is yard waste day, so I'd pull the weeds and then they'd be gone from my life forever. Well, at least until new weeds grow.

Out I went, my iPod in my pocket, in my grungiest clothes and gardening gloves. Listening to my favorite playlist of motivational music, I stood there bent over pulling the weeds one by one. And slowly but surely, the ground started to reappear. And what was important - the beautiful flowering garden - suddenly came back into focus. The plants had space to breath, spread out, and flower even more.

As I stopped to admire my work, I started to wonder if pulling weeds from the garden was really just a metaphor for life. In life, sometimes I have struggles. I have challenges. I guess everyone does. "Weeds" start to clutter up my life and I lose focus on what's important. Sometimes those weeds come in the forms of negative thinking, too much stress from not taking care to keep balance in my life, or simply procrastinating tasks I don't enjoy doing. But sometimes, those "weeds" are from watching, reading, or listening to too much negative news, carrying a grudge, not letting go of something painful, or being around people who simply bring me down.

When I take the time to clear my life of its weeds by being proactive, finishing those tasks I'd rather procrastinate, listening to music that speaks to my soul, being positive, remembering what I'm grateful for, surrounding myself with uplifting friends, and clearing out the clutter regularly, my life is pretty weed-free and what's important is clear and easily accessible, just like my garden. Keeping my life weed free allows abundance to take its place, and abundance always begets abundance, just like in my garden.