May 26 – “On Weeds”

OK.  So who gets to name weeds?  And who decides if a plant is a weed, anyway?    Our yard has been a mass of one thing or the other for two years now.  Chris has decided that it is time for our yard to come into its own, whatever that will end up looking like.  We did the pull-up-extraneous-stuff routine in the front yard already.  Now we're working on the back.  And it has already been an adventure.    Now I can see broad categories of weeds.  In fact I came up with three easy ones just today.  Category one is what I would call the "allegedly pretty weeds."  Two of our neighbors have had these all over their front yard for years.  And they say they want it that way.  These weeds have little yellow flowers.  I guess the good thing about them is that it's OK for the grandkids to pick all they want and give them to Mommy or Nana.  It's also pretty easy to rip them up by the roots.  But Chris said people pay to put these things in their gardens.  Come on over and take some for free.   Category two I would call "nuisance weeds."  I know all weeds are a nuisance, but these have a particular quirk that makes them stand out.  The best example in our yard was creeping in from the abandoned house next door.  Chris said the name of it was potato vine.  I asked her if we could eat the potatoes, but she said it didn't really make potatoes.  So why call it that?  Another imponderable question for the ages.  This particular potato vine, like others in this category, was quite prolific.  It had taken over one whole section of the fence, and it was well on its way to making a move on the rest.  I tore it down.  I never saw any roots, though, so it will be back.   My final category is the worst of all.  It is the "evil demon devil weed weeds."  And we have been hosting the top three in this category for way too long.  Number one on the list always has to be the Galveston sticker bur.  I've been fighting these things since I was a little kid wanting to run through the grass barefoot.  They hurt.  Second has to our green monster root ball weeds.  They grow anywhere, and they have thorns.  There are no flowers, just green, fern-looking stuff.   If they are near a fence, they wrap around it.  If they are in the middle of the yard, they pop straight up.  And when I tried to dig them out by the roots, I found out that the root system if a massive, twisted never-ending ball.  The third one I would include here is another one that people pay to have in their yard, the "spiny, wicked bougainvillea."  This plant has huge two or three inch spikes all over it, and it is totally indiscriminate as to who it choose to stab.  All the women in our family think they are gorgeous.  And I guess the flower by itself is very pretty.  But I can do without the tradeoff.  Chris keeps hers in a hanging basket.  Good place for it.  Keeps it contained.   2 Corinthians 12:7-9 says, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."   Father, thank you for your incredible grace.  And for those thorny plants you created, too.  Amen.