Weeds! Weeds! Weeds!

My garden has become just a bit overrun with weeds. What's that got to do with bringing your creative work to the world? Quite a lot, it seems.

Inspiration is everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Yes, even in the clumps of what I lovingly call "the devil weed" which has roots that go clear through to China, and a stem that breaks just easily enough to guarantee that said roots remain in the ground, where they can, and most surely will, sprout again; only next time, even thicker and in more places.

So what can this tracheophyte teach us? Here's just a bit of a weed's wisdom to apply to the creative process:

1. You can create a lot when your your roots are deep.
2. When you need to, you can easily let go of something on the surface, secure in the knowledge that what really drives you, what is really at your core is deep, unchanging, Source.
3. Sometimes what others see as your most annoying trait is in fact your greatest strength. It is what makes you, You.
   

You know...it's got me thinking. These plants just might be food for the creative spirit. I wonder, what else can we learn from the lowly weed?

Comments

[Karen Lynch]

Weeds teach us to receive from nature every bit of sustenance available to us, and to transform that into being the very essence of who we are.

They teach us to be opportunists in the most positive way, soaking up, extracting from the world all that it has to give, so that we can give all that we have to give.

[Jen Vondenbrink]

I love your analogy of the weeds. Several years ago I waged a battle against the dandelions in my yard. I'd pull them up, dig them up, but they always seemed to return.

By the end of the summer, I grew to have great respect for my dandelions. I saw their strength, resilience, and history.

I learned a lot about myself as well. You can spend a lot of fruitless energy fighting against nature, but it is a lot more enjoyable to wonder at its beauty.