Think of your life as a beautiful garden.

For a while when you are young, your garden is planted for you and tended for you.  Sometimes that is done well, and sometimes it is done sloppily.

As you grow, you learn that you do have some control over your garden. 

If you are lucky, you get to start working on your gardens early, even being trusted to pick the flowers that are planted.

Inevitably weeds begin to grow.

You might be lucky enough to have people helping you to root out those weeds, even showing you how to do so.

Or you might have to figure it out on your own.

Sometimes the garden will get so overrun by weeds that you might feel like giving up. 

You can’t see even the flowers anymore. 

You might start to think that all you have is a weed garden.

You might find yourself forgetting the true beauty of your garden.

The garden has become so overgrown that it just looks ugly to you.

But it’s never too late to start weeding. 

You can slowly begin to pluck out the weeds, one by one. 

This is can be a painstaking process. 

Sometimes all you can do is pluck out the weeds that are growing as they are growing.

You can’t quite muster up the energy or courage to attack the weeds that have been growing there for years, decades. 

That’s ok.

Just pluck a weed out – any weed.

Slowly you will start to see the beautiful flowers that have been hidden, sometimes for a long time.

You will probably need to spend some time nurturing these flowers a little extra.

They have been so long hidden by weeds that you might need some extra sunlight and some extra water. 

But they are perennials. 

They will come back even after having lain dormant for a long time.

Give yourself time to cherish the flowers you are discovering.

Soon enough you will feel motivated to tackle the tougher, deeper-rooted weeds. 

You will figure it out.

Eventually your garden will be overflowing with beautiful flowers.

Your garden won’t look like anybody else’s.

That’s ok.

Your garden will be beautiful.

That won’t mean that your weeding days are over, though – far from it.  Weeding will always be necessary.

For today, though, just pluck a weed or maybe two, if that’s all you can muster.

And watch the beauty unfold.

And if you happen to be a person that had a lot of support tending your garden through the years,

If you happen to be a person that learned early how to prevent overgrowth of weeds in your own garden,

Try to understand and even share some gardening techniques with them.