Spirituality and Weeds

Working in a vineyard

Lent.  

It can seem austere, perhaps a bit too penitential.   But Lent can be a special time of spiritual renewal and growth. 

Lent reminds me it is time for cleaning out my 'spiritual closet', so to speak.   Our spiritual vineyards or gardens need to be cleared out every so often... get those dead plants and brush out of there...otherwise how can new life grow?

The days get longer and warmer.  In fact the word Lent means "lengthening".   Springtime!   And this time of year …. rain, rain rain. 

And then come the weeds.  Everywhere!  All over my yard. And every year, there I am, pulling those weeds!  

Oh, it would be so much easier to just hire someone to clean my yard and pull the weeds. Or, I could just ignore the weeds, but then they will overtake my yard! 

Weed pulling can be a kind of "zen thing".  I feel a spiritual solace as I pull up the weeds, slow and painstaking as it may be.  For as I uproot the weeds in my yard, I am trying to uproot the spiritual weeds growing in my heart.

What weeds may be growing in your spiritual garden?  

Has the weed of anger popped up in your garden?  Or how about the weed of resentment?  Or perhaps the weeds of fear & worry are abound in your garden.    Or maybe you may have the weed of impatience growing in your spiritual vineyard!   Perhaps some of us may have the weed of arrogance ...or the weed of despair.   Or do you have the weed of not being able to forgive all over your yard?   What about the weeds of cynicism, negativity, mean-spiritedness?    On it goes.

What are your spiritual weeds?

Is time for a little spiritual weed pulling in your garden?