Some impromptu thoughts on a Saturday morning… Thanks for the prompt, Jodi! 🙂

“Your mind is a garden.
Your thoughts are seeds.

You can grow flowers,
or you can grow weeds.

– paraphrase from William Wordsworth

Choose flowers!
Cherish the moments.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi”

I found myself replying to a comment from Kerfe at https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/about/, which said, “Although ‘weeds’ is just our perception…all plants have their place in the ecosystem. As a child, I never understood why people wouldn’t want dandelions covering their yard…”

And since my reply was getting a little long, I decided to make it an actual post…

We will all have unwelcome thoughts from time to time, of course!  And we can learn something from taking some time to examine what the ‘weed’ thoughts look like.  How do they change the landscape?  What, if any, danger do they pose, or, can they be integrated into the natural beauty of the garden?  Sometimes they will just have to go–as attractive as they may seem initially.  Destructive thoughts, like invasive plant species, can overtake the peaceful gardens of our minds, and disrupt an otherwise stable, if dynamic, balance.  In the end I agree with Wordsworth–it’s our choice which flora we nurture in our mind’s garden.

We each must take responsibility for that which we cultivate.  As the saying goes, our thoughts become our words, become our actions, etc.  Pollen and spores from my garden disperse to those around me, carried by forces I may not control.  My neighbor’s soil may be resilient to any weeds I accidentally spread.  Or, it may be fertile breeding ground for an invasive species to take hold and multiply recklessly.  Thus, what I allow to grow in my own garden affects those around me, like it or not.

I suggest that we make some conscious efforts at constructive, rather than destructive, gardening.  I’m thinking of politics here.  I have decided to stop posting things on Facebook that make fun of a certain candidate, or ridicule a certain point of view.  That is simply not helpful; those are definitely weeds in my garden and I categorically reject them.  I will try to resist the temptation to be drawn into circular arguments, incited by others’ attacks on my beliefs.  To those who post crass, below-the-belt insults at certain groups, I will actively guard my plot against the spores of hatred by scrolling over your memes.  I invite you, instead, to use your platform to grow things that sustain us.  What beauty can you bring into the world, what foods can you grow to help feed it?  Can you use your picks and shovels to tend, rather than demolish?

I don’t have to like your garden.  You don’t have to like mine.  But I know we can find ways to exist in each other’s presence without mutually poisoning and undermining the earth we inhabit.  If we try hard enough, we may even grow to appreciate our unique combinations of plant life.  Wouldn’t that be so much better?