Well, of course I would much rather write about something else.
I could write about how 20-year old Anderson College student and English major Abby Johnson is trekking in Ireland right now.
Or I could give a shout-out to the man who first noticed the elderly woman who slowly shuffled her way to vote at the Johnson County Courthouse the Monday before Election Day.
Observing the woman scan the long voting line and sit down on the steps to rest, he asked the question: “Ma’am, are you here to vote?” When she nodded yes, she was escorted to the front of the 55-minute long wait and inside into a voting booth.
Yes, writing about an exciting college adventure or an uplifting Johnson County hero is more appealing, interesting, glamorous and captivating than my focus.
It’s not even a matter I choose to dwell upon. But they won’t leave me alone — and they keep reproducing by the hundreds.
Weeds. You name one — I got it. Chickweed, thistle, dandelions, hawkweed, knotweed, spurge. I’m not quite sure how they landed in my yard so prolifically, but I can assure you that this year I truly have a bumper crop.
Whether it was the mild winter that was conducive to weed growth or the wind and animal kingdom plotting against me, I have yet to determine the guilty culprit — but I will. I can logically narrow the search to wind, water, wild animals, birds, livestock and people. But meanwhile as the investigation persists, so does the pulling, hoeing and mulching.
Last week while weeding I began to daydream about how long it would take for my yard to be overcome if I never pulled another weed. How long would it take the weeds to entangle and smother my good plants? How long before the weeds steal the moisture and nutrients from soil preventing any of my plants to flower or fruit.
The weeding took my mind to the parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew 13. The parable tells us the sower throws his seed on four types of ground.
In verse seven, the seed falls among the thorns, and the weedy thorns sprang up and choked the seedling out. Matthew 13:22 explains that seed falling among the weedy thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
I kept weeding.
