"I learn more about God

From weeds than from roses;

Resilience springing

Through the smallest chink of hope

In the absolute of concrete…."

~Phillip Pulfrey

October is, in some ways, an odd time to write about pulling weeds. The yard work that needs to be accomplished around our house comes more in the form of raking and bagging the leaves that have fallen and are falling each day at an alarming rate. But I just saw a report from Balmoral Castle, the country home of the British royal family,situated in the highlands of Scotland. Now I am a hopeless anglophile so I am always drawn to anything that remotely mentions the royal family. The report included tours of the beautiful grounds that surround the castle and the interior that has not changed much for over a hundred years. But what caught my attention was an interview with the head gardener. In addition to showing the amazing geraniums that are a favorite to the queen, she said that often, when the queen is in residence, they will find little piles of weeds on the grounds where the queen has settled into doing a little yard work of her own.

Imagine that! The Queen of England weeding! Doesn't it just make you smile? Can't you imagine her down on her knees in the dirt pulling a stray plant that doesn't seem to fit in the scheme of the well manicured gardens? I love the idea of it.

It made me wonder if the gardeners, instead of being lax in their work, really left a few patches of untended areas simply for her pleasure, for her work. Because in the end, don't we all need to do a little weeding now and then? It is quite therapeutic to bend down and pull out what is misplaced and throw in onto the compost heap. I imagine the gardeners at Balmoral must know that the queen might benefit from weeding just like the rest of us. As she pulls out that errant thistle who planted itself among the roses, is she thinking of all the world's problems that she has no power to overcome? What about the situation in Palestine? In Israel? In Afghanistan? As she gives the Scottish equivalent of the dandelion a good yank, is she trying to rid herself of all the economic worries of her people, their unemployment woes, the latest escapades of the Prime Minister?

It is difficult to know if the queen's ability to weed is made possible through the neglect of her hired staff or not. But the one thing I am sure of is that we all have the need to weed at times. Even the queen.

So my question is what needs weeding in my life? What needs weeding in yours?