Getting to the root of it
I'm officially old, as my proudest accomplishment this weekend was weeding my garden.
My childhood self would be appalled. I used to suffer sitting in the hot sun, dirt on my arms and under my fingernails as I weeded my mom’s garden, trying to pull each weed with precision.
“Gotta get the roots!” my mom would say but I would give up after a few minutes because it was too hard, covertly switching to removing only the visible parts of the weed. No one would know…
Now I have a garden of my own, a square, concrete patio in my front yard surrounded by a small swath of garden bed on each side. I wanted each side to be weed-free but what I didn’t realize was that my weed-free wish would take four years to achieve, the same amount of time as earning a college degree… and possibly the same amount of effort.
I didn’t want to weed superficially like when I was a kid. I wanted to weed for real, roots and all. But that meant time and effort, which turned into me weeding one side of the patio each year for the past four years.
Last year, I proudly told a friend that I finished weeding one side of the garden bed and had one more year to go before reaching my goal of finishing all four sides. She laughed, assuming I was joking as she looked at the scanty size of the garden, a task a team of gardeners could complete in one afternoon.
But I stuck with my plan: one side a year. Sure, my garden would be disheveled for years: three-quarters of it filled with weeds, then half, then a quarter, but that didn’t matter to me as much as weeding it well did. I wanted to put in the work, the time, the effort to make it weed-free. Maybe my motivation was partly to make up for my haphazard weeding from decades ago, maybe it was stubbornness to do it myself, maybe it was that I started to enjoy weeding.
I noticed that when I weed my brain slows down and I’m forced to focus on what’s in front of me, weed by weed, moment by moment. It’s a nice break from the rhythm of responsibilities and the steady drum of decision-making in my life. It’s an excuse to be outside and soak up the sun, and the progress is tangible – a winning combination.
It’s year four and I finally reached my goal: a weed-free garden!
I shared my gardening accomplishment with a colleague and he congratulated me for my progress and dedication. I laughed and immediately dismissed his comment, thinking he must be joking because in what world does taking four years to weed a small garden warrant any kind of praise? But he was being genuine so I stopped laughing and thanked him instead.
When you get to the root of it, achieving a goal four years in the making is certainly something to be proud of.
Thanks to , , and for helping me get to the root of this one.