Weeding the Spiritual Garden

This week, as I engaged in the cyclical, repetitive and ENDLESS weeding of my yard, (which my OCD secretly loves), I've been reflecting on toxicity... on weeds, which I believe are representative of the lower energies on the planet.  Spiritually, I have been wrestling with how to explain weed-like phenomenons like terrorists and cancer when I believe that God is everywhere and in all beings (I presumptuously assume that it's this very question that has turned many into atheists - and I honestly can't blame them when I reflect on some of the horrific things that we have done to one another here on Earth).

From my interpretation (in the gospel according to Erin ;)), though, the darkness and weeds are here for important reasons (after all we are told that "we can never escape from the Spirit" and that, to God, "darkness and light are the same" - Psalm 139).  

It's hard not to admit that after witnessing the aftermath of a tragedy, a horrific terrorist attack has the ability to strengthen a community in their resolve to be tender with one another and to come together in a new way.  For me personally, enduring the crippling pain of watching my Grandmother die awakened me to the reality of life as I realized for the first time that one day,we all will be lowered into the ground, and so we'd better really be here with each other.  Somehow, these dark moments of disorder were pregnant with a new order, just waiting to resurrect from the tears and pain.

As I got cozy with the varied and annoyingly pervasive weeds in my yard this week, it became clear to me that their disorderly presence makes me work hardto get gorgeous flowers and delicious vegetables to grow.  And after weeks of blood, sweat, and thistle pricks, I experience a whole new appreciation for the plants that "bear much fruit" when I've had to witness and rid the yard of the invasive ones.   

Here's my big "ah-ha" this week, though.  Just because I get the purpose of the weeds, doesn't mean that I shouldn't weed!!!  If I don't weed, the lower energies (fear, hatred, anger) take over and suddenly I am so full of weedsthat I can barely bear fruit (or only bear lame, tiny fruits)!  And the dis-ease of Fear is the greatest weed of all on the planet -- it's the root of all darkness, and Love is it's only remedy, the only opposition.  But love and pumpkins and cucumbers emerges SO MUCH better with our assistance!

Turn on the news and you will see that the planet is in crisis mode -- with human fear reaching a boiling point.  And if we look around to this place for guidance, we will fall victim to "the blind leading the blind" scenario, as Jesus predicted -- we will fall into the ditch.  If we listen to fearful leaders and take-in their fearful ways, we become a bed of weeds, just as disorderly as a thistle patch.   This is exactly why Jesus warned us to "turn the other cheek."

We all live in glass houses, and are all, in some way responsible for what's happening.  After all, what happens inwardly, manifests outwardly (cue the outrageous possibility and now reality of Donald Trump's election) -- each one of us holding onto elaborate, debilitating, and toxic fears in our subconscious that we ourselves must examine and uproot.  Saint Francis said that “[we] have no enemy except [ourselves]" which is why, this week during our practice, we will use the Ayurvedic energy of heat to detoxify our bodies of any residual fear hiding within us.  We have to leave our shame about this at the door, though.  We have been warned about this "original sin" at our birth in the fine print: "Welcome to Earth, darling - it's beautiful and amazing place, but WARNING - there has been a cultural "forgetting" that has happened here.  Hold the Light, child, and you'll make it." 

Because we are magnetic beings by nature, it's very easy to pick up the disease along your Facebook Newsfeed, the morning news, the teachers lounge.  This is exactly why Jesus went to the desert and got up early to pray in quiet, because unless he weeded the bed of His heart, He would have been trampled.  We come to the desert of our mats to release, to renew and to reboot, so that we may bear great fruit in the world and be the beings of Light we were sent to be.  As my two year old says "don't worry, be happy."  She's much wiser than she realizes. :)