Gardening is a metaphor for life

Not something I ever thought I would say.  I don't have the greenest of thumbs, but being a Loeffler now, I feel like I need to give it a try.  Spring is one of my most favorite times of the year.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am in love with daffodils and prefer them to roses any day of the week.  The fact that it's 80 degrees in the middle of March and my daffodils are already blooming makes me smile.

I decided to be a good wife this afternoon and go out to help with the yard work.  I'm very ADD when it comes to any type of gardening.  I start in one area and 2 seconds later I've moved onto something different without finishing task number one.  Usually I always get stuck pulling up the weeds or the grass that has crept into our flower beds.  

As I was ripping grass from the ground, I thought "this is such a metaphor for my life!"  Those stray little blades of grass are like the little problems in my life, the little bumps in the road.  Usually we just end up scrapping the surface and rip the grass at the stems.  We don't pull out the roots and really figure out where the problem lies.  Well, those roots will just keep growing and grass and weeds will just keep popping up, much like problems.  And you know what?  Getting those roots out sucks.  You get your hands dirty, you have to dig in the dirt, and some of those roots are stubborn! 

I've come to realize that nothing comes easy in life.  And I usually have to take the hard road and not by choice.  I went to Spain by myself, lived with a crazy family member, had severe panic attacks due to living situation and had to move across the city by myself to an apartment full of people I didn't know.  I cried, I sobbed, and sucked it up because there was nothing else to do.  I couldn't go home, so I had to be a big girl and solve my own problems.  My very first big girl job was the job from hell.  I had no support, I hated going to work every day, I spent day and night working, not sleeping, not eating.  It took 2 months of tears, misery and panic attacks for me to realize that it wasn't worth it.  I finally resigned and went into subbing (which was another weed in and of itself).  I have more examples of my weeds, but I won't bore you with them all and with my venting. :)

If I could have avoided those life events, I would have, but them I wouldn't be who I am today.  I wouldn't know what I could handle and how to solve my own problems.  I have become a more reflective person and have tried to figure out the reason behind my life events.  

So go out there and pull up some weeds.  It's beautiful outside, not to mention yanking out all of those weeds is incredibly therapeutic!  Or get out there and go for a walk.  Our little family of 4 took a 3 mile walk this afternoon and it was wonderful out.  A little too hot for some girls, but it was perfect for me!