Velvet or not.

The other day my cute, explorative 7 year old mentioned that one of our "wild flowers" was growing burrs. I kind of shrugged it aside, thinking that I had already pulled the burr-producing plants on our hillside. The next night when I came out to water, he insisted on showing me.

Sure enough, the stem he pointed to had DOZENS of little velcro-like green burrs, sticking to almost anything they touched. Apparently they are Velvet Stickweed.  Velvet or not, they were getting the boot.

The last few days we’ve pulled one after the next. Many of them are 2 or 3 feet tall! They’ve been under our noses the whole time, but we hadn’t recognized them for what they were or how pervasively they’d propagate.

Thanks to some great help from my kids, as of this morning they’ve all been identified and pulled. Enough to fill up TWO big garbage bags.Thank heavens we got them out before all of those burrs fell and reseeded themselves.

(I’ll admit, I felt a little foolish having not noticed earlier, BUT I’m grateful that my uninhibited son could point out the truth AND that I was willing to listen.)

If we think of these like deceptive thoughts,

some may grow readily

AND don’t give us a reason to question them until they’ve already gone to seed and spread.

OK, so how does this apply to you and me?

Maybe these are thoughts that are 

socially disseminated 

or easily accepted through rationalization—

You’re overweight so you are less valuable

You are one of the moms that doesn’t “have it together”

You are selfish if you take time for yourself

If your kids misbehave you’re a bad mother

You can’t trust your intuition because it’s different than what others are doing.

You aren’t beautiful if you don’t look like her

Though subtle and somewhat believable, whatever the deceptions may be for you, question them!  

Are they really true?  

Do they deserve taking up space in your mind?  

Do they merit being in your life?

If they don't, show them to the door.  Even if it feels like you have to gather armfuls and armfuls.  It will free up that space and energy for the TRUTH.