Look to the Weeds

“When life is not coming up roses
Look to the weeds
and find the beauty hidden within them.”
― L.F.Young

 

Photo © 2017 C. Castle

 

The other day I was searching for a rose quote to go with some of my rose pictures for a garden post I was planning. My objective was to talk about the lovely scents, beauty, and joy roses can contribute to one’s garden. Instead, I found this quote about weeds. The phrase “finds the beauty hidden within them”—them being weeds—stuck with me.

 Beauty in weeds? That almost sounds like an oxymoron: two contradictory elements put together. After all, what gardener, or non-gardener even, thinks weeds are beautiful? Isn’t a smooth, manicured expanse of green grass much more pleasing than a lawn filled with lumpy and unruly weeds?

 But the author of this quote was on to something that we often forget when we’re in the midst of troubles and trials. Even weeds have a purpose, and in many cases the blooms on a weed are as beautiful as our prized flowers.

 s a gardener I must confess that I don’t like weeds very much. They muck up my nice flowerbeds. Grow in places that are hard to weed, and they are difficult to eradicate. It’s also a losing battle to keep the weeds in my garden from blooming. A single blossom can result in hundreds or thousands more weeds. But when I haven’t yanked them out I have found some beautiful surprises—both physical and spiritual.

 For example—The most common of weeds in any gardener’s yard is the lowly dandelion. Gardeners ruthlessly eradicate them, splashing poisonous herbicides across the lawn. But perhaps we should stop and reconsider our actions. This hated weed can serve a purpose. The leaves are edible as salad greens, as long as you haven’t sprayed chemicals on them. If I were starving in a forest, the dandelion is the one plant I could recognize and eat. I’d consider that a hidden beauty if I were hungry enough to forage for food in the wild.

A bunch of these cheery yellow flowers clutched in a small hand and presented to you as a gift is a bouquet that never fades from your memory. I remember all the nosegays my daughter picked for me and the pride with which she delivered her weedy gift. In her childish vision, she recognized beauty where I saw none. Something we adults need to rediscover.

When you carefully pluck the dandelion’s fragile, cottony seed head and tell your child to blow and make a wish—spreading the tiny seeds to the wind—you create an experience you both will remember all your lives. Trust me, the watching a thousand seeds float into your lawn is worth the joyful giggles you’ll hear as your child chases the drifting seeds around the yard.

This is just one example of how the lowly weed can be a blessing. I’m sure if you think about the weeds in your life, and the playful things you’ve done with weeds in the garden, you can find the hidden blessing in weeds.

As the literal weed can unwitting be a blessing, so can the figurative weed mentioned in the opening quote of this post. So the next time your life isn’t coming up roses, consider the weeds and why they grow. That weed in your garden’s life, that you hate or don’t think you can bear, may contain a lesson you need to learn, an example you need to set or see, or a blessing to discover in the midst of the turmoil. While you are looking for those hidden blessings, remember that “…for those who love God all things work together for good….” Romans 8:28 

Do you have a hidden weed blessing in your life?

Don’t forget to leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for Grafted into Deceit by Sherri Wilson Johnson! Sherri will be giving away two copies of her book. Winner will be announced in the October 30^th issue of the Weekly Windup.

About the Author:

Catherine Castle is the author of the multi-award-winning inspirational suspense romance, The Nun and the Narc, and the sweet romantic comedy, A Groom for Mama. Catherine loves writing, reading, traveling, singing, watching movies, and the theatre. In the winter she quilts and has a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) in her sewing case. In the summer her favorite place is in her garden. She’s a passionate gardener who won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club. 

Her debut inspiration romantic suspense, The Nun and the Narc, from Soul Mate Publishing was an ACFW Genesis Finalist, a 2014 EPIC finalist, and the winner of the 2014 Beverly Hills Book Award and the 2014 RONE Award. Her most recent release, A Groom for Mama, is a sweet romantic comedy from Soul Mate Publishing.  Both books are available on Amazon.