Regular Deadheading

It’s been such an emotional couple of days for the folks in the path of the deadly Oklahoma tornado. The images and the stories are almost too much to comprehend.

Reluctantly, I pulled myself away from the television this afternoon and with a heavy heart, I ventured out to the back garden to water and to collect my thoughts. I opened the gate giving thanks for the very luxury of doing so; of going out to check on my special space with hose in hand and not knowing the kind of fear some of the poor parents are suffering tonight as search and rescue crews switch focus to recovery efforts instead. I shook my head once again and whispered another prayer.

I reached for the clippers off my potting bench and snipped a few roses and zinnias with blooms now past their prime. Also among them are lavender, foxgloves, viburnum, more roses, vines and anything else that “spoke” to me at my favorite nursery (smiles). I’ve planted pretty much all I can plant in my little garden – now and throughout the summer, it will be a constant game of watering, weeding, waiting, clipping, watering, weeding, waiting, clipping, etc. But I don’t mind. Tending my garden is what keeps me sparking on all 8 cylinders (LOL). It’s where the Lord meets me. It’s where my own thoughts rise above the chaos of the day to somehow make sense. I garden with sea gulls overhead and a little fat lizard that’s taken up residence beneath my erysimum shrub. It’s where little finches and sparrows dart in and out through the lavatera while blue jays and robins drink from my fountain and splash in the bird bath.

Perspective is gained in the simplest of moments, don’t you think?

This deadheading – the cutting away of that which is spent and of no value to the garden sort of mirrors how I hope to live my life. A rose that has turned brown and lost its petals is no longer God glorifying. That’s why we clip it off to allow the new buds to form. As gardeners, we don’t want to see a plant continue to give energy to branches full of dead flowers – we clip them off to promote new God-glorifying growth.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. (John 15:2 NIV)

Do you have some deadheading to do in your life? Are there “things,” relationships, activities, choices or attitudes that are far from God glorifying?

Yes, there is much to learn in the garden.

Be blessed, my friend,

Debbie