The other day, after several months of being accosted by harsh winds and unforgiving icy rain, I walked outof my house and into a blanket of warm and blinding sunlight, while a gentle breeze gently caressed my faceevery few minutes. I was instantly grateful for the change in weather because it meant that I could work at the farm. One of my tasks that day was to weed out the dead plants and the weeds that were surrounding the garlic. Ihave always taken delight in weeding, though many find it to be an annoyingly simplistic task that constantly needs to be done. It’s such an easy task, and it is immediately gratifying because you see instant results, unlike the long and patient wait required after planting.

However, recently, the action of weeding seems so violent and judgmental because it includesregarding some series of plants as negative and harmful life forms, and intentionally ending their existence in the garden without a thought. I have since found that there are some methods of gardening in which weeding is limited in order to allow nature to perform its own course, or to allow weeds to perform certain benefits like holding moisture in the soil by protecting it from the sun’s heat. Yet, weeds are deemed as enemies of the gardener because they often steal the nutrients in the soil needed to let the desired vegetables and other plants grow, or they can stunt their growth by growing too close to or wrapping themselves around the vegetables. Weeding becomes the necessary defense of the plants so that they may become strong and healthy enough to produce many fruits.
 
I have made it a habit to think about my life stressors as weeds. Some stressors have small benefits by keeping me busy and helping me to gain important life skills, while others deplete my energy and cause even more problems than I can handle. It is in these moments that I must regard weeding as a necessary defense for my own health; those stressors that cause problems need to go. Of course, simply letting go of certain habit, responsibilities, or people are not so easy as tugging a weed out of the ground, but simply recognizing the problem and attempting to avoid similar stressors are the first steps to a healthier life and mind. Sometimes, I transfer my negative energies into the weeds that I pull from the ground so that I can physically remove those energies from my mind. The act of weeding is a therapeutic release that allows me to see the immediate results that I want: a pure patch of Earth, a pure mind.