I have to admit to all of you, I detest yard work and my husband detests it even more than I do. I am not good at it and I don’t enjoy it, but when I set my mind to something, well, it usually gets done. Today, I decided it was time to attack an area of our landscaping and attack I did.
This bush you are looking at is a beautiful Forsythia bush (not sure why I even know the name of it). In the spring it is beautiful with yellow blooms. When it was first planted, many, many years ago, it was the perfect size bush for this particular area of my yard. However, over the last several years, this part of my landscaping has been ignored and unattended. Several bushes morphed into other bushes and vines were woven in and out of all of them. This pretty bush had turned into several small bushes and began taking over a very large area, squashing out and growing over several other bushes.
I had a mess. It was hard to tell where one bush began and the other one ended. But, as I said, I was determined to take care of this mess so I headed in the backyard with my less than adequate tools and began to prune and cut.
The tools I used were an ax, a pruner (borrowed from the neighbor), a machete, and my hands. I would take whatever tool I thought I needed and use it until I realized it was the perfect tool or I would need to switch to something else. Once I cut a stem or root, I would pull on the bush until that particular part of the bush let go and I pulled it free. I became covered in dirt, got blisters on my hands, and scratches on my hand and arms.
As I am working, I made such a distinct connection to the thoughts that are in our mind. Our thoughts become intertwined with lies and we can no longer discern where the truth begins and ends and the lie begins and ends. Other people’s thoughts begin to cover our thoughts like vines. Those thoughts begin to cover up our own thoughts and begin to diminish our confidence in our thoughts and in ourselves.
The process of unwinding and untangling our thoughts requires the same thing it took for me to untangle the bushes. You have to do it methodically, deliberately, and with the right tools. You have to be persistent in your pursuit even when you feel like giving up, get dirty and it hurts. You have to be willing to keep chopping, pruning and digging until you get to the root/truth.
We all live with a lot of lies we believe. To live an authentic and happier life, we need to dig into the thoughts that are driving our behavior and be willing to examine what we find there.
I sit here tonight with pruned bushes, blistered hands, and scratched arms and hands, but having accomplished my goal. That area of my yard can now flourish because I have given the bushes room to grow. My desire for you is for you to go through the pain of getting to the truth knowing there will be room to grow and flourish on the other side of all your hard work and determination.