The rain has been a blessing to the garden. Pulling weeds from moist soil is very satisfying, as opposed to the tug of caked dirt. I lose track of time when I am ankle deep in green beans, or Swiss chard, or potato greens.
There are weeds that I know personally, and have no hesitation in yanking. Other times, though, I am unsure if what I just grabbed was a baby parsnip, or a radish. When we were planting there was some enthusiasm that leaked into confusion about exactly what ended up where. In the corn rows I am confident. Anything with two slender, curved leaves stays. Everything else goes. But in the lettuce section I have doubts. There are flowers around the perimeter, and I don't want to snatch the
bleeding hearts before they have a chance to be beautiful.
A friend was telling me about her husband's efforts to help around the house. While she was away he hung a picture she had bought at an art show. He looked pleased as punch when she walked in the door. They went to observe his handiwork in the living room and he grinned like the Cheshire Cat. She groaned. It was six inches above her head. Since he is a foot taller than her, his sense of height is different.
"Honey, it's too high!" His face fell like a brick off a wall. A week later she asked him to replace a cracked window pane and he made an excuse about not being able to find the glass cutter. She knew it was because of her reaction about the painting. She had yanked that willingness out at the roots.
One time a man told me he had taken care of the kids while his wife went on a girls' weekend. They had made pancakes, and played cards, watched a movie and read books on the couch. But when his wife walked in on Sunday evening she missed all that.
"The kids are in the same clothes they were when I left!!!" The husband and two kids felt about one inch tall.
Some efforts take awhile to mature. Probably the next time he did the Dad thing he would remember baths and pjs, if his wife had showered him with appreciation rather than scorn.
I don't want to destroy a sweet effort before it has a chance to grow.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went his way. But
when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather up the weeds?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the weeds you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in
bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matthew 13
