Weeding brings me joy

I like weeding. There's something I find extremely satisfying about yanking unwanted plants from my gardens. The vibration of the roots as they are unceremoniously and forcefully removed from the ground brings me joy. 

I prefer to weed by hand instead of spraying chemicals, though I started experimenting with pouring boiling water over some of the tougher and prickly ones. I also just added a weeding tool to my Amazon cart and am considering adding it to my gardening arsenal. 

I try not to think about Fraggle Rock and the different worlds living beneath the weeds. I speak kindly to the worms and rolly-pollies as they appear with what I imagine would be looks of fear and possibly disgust as I modify their underground lairs. But still, I find weeding to be a soul-filling activity. 

Sometimes I listen to music or podcasts but lately I've been listening to nature's soundtrack. I have gardening gloves, a floppy sun hat, yard-waste bags, and my new knee pad, which used to be my yoga mat. (It was repurposed when my dogs decided it made for a good toy and tore part of it in half. I had been wanting to get a new one and now I can do so without guilt. So thank you, destructive pups!)

To be completely honest and transparent, I'm not a great gardener. I'm great at the yanking and love to browse the garden stores and look at starter plants and seeds. I'm decent at repotting and can really handle the hose and watering can. I even purchased some plant cages to protect my garden from the bunnies that razed everything I planted a few years ago. My gardens won't win us any yard beautification awards, but it's enough for me.

This year my garden beds were a complete mess. I didn't do much with them last year and this year I have plans to plant. Weeding was the first start. I wasn't surprised by how overgrown they were or by the copious amount of mint that keeps trying to take over, but I was surprised by one seedling.

The only reason I recognized it was because I planted seeds for that seedling two years ago. It is an annual plant and according to everything I know about annuals, it shouldn't have been there. I know nothing about whether this type of seed can lay dormant in gardens (maybe it was deposited by a bird?), but there was a lone Sunflower seedling growing among my weeds. 

I was proud of myself for being able to identify it and I was surprised to see it there. I then started thinking about resiliency and being a Sunflower in a garden of weeds.

Stress is like weeds. Mostly unwanted but some can be for good (dandelions, anyone? Full of health benefits and food for the bees). We can't yank all of our stressors out by the roots but we can learn how to respond to the stress around us in ways that support our wellbeing instead of detract from it. 

To me, weeding  is one way for me to improve my stress resiliency. It gives me a physical outlet for pent-up energy. It provides me time to be present and mindful in the moment. It gets me outdoors where I may or may not connect with neighbors. It provides me with a sense of accomplishment in seeing clear ground in the areas in which I just worked. It grants a level of control when I recognize that something bothers me and am able to make immediate changes. And I can do as little or as much of it as I want. Though I am feeling the pressure to get in as many hours as possible right now, before the cicadas come. 

The ironic part about building stress resilience is that when stress levels increase, it's not uncommon for self-care and healthier habits to take a back seat. I speak from personal experience.

This Spring's weeding is part of my recommitment to myself to build strong habits as a routine and non-negotiable part of my lifestyle instead of waiting until I'm in a stress-crisis to remind me to engage in the activities that help me with stress. Like many people, my stress levels are high. Weeding will be in my self-care toolbox until it becomes too cold for weeds. I'm not worried about running out of weeds to pull because they grow like, well, weeds.

Life is short. I'm going to do what I can so that I can enjoy it to the fullest without letting stress take over. I invite you to join me in finding activities that fill your soul and negate some of the harm stress does to our bodies and minds.