Ever since I was little I had a close attachment with dirt.  I loved making mud pies. I enjoyed digging for worms.  There was something about squishing your fingers through the moist soil in search of buried treasure or who knows what.  I believe I also consumed a certain amount of it during my childhood.

The fascination faded as most things do when we grow up.  But later, in my 50s, I decided to tackle our front yard.  We’d just moved into our old “old” house a few years before and the chore of cutting the grass on a 45 degree angle with a power mower almost landed my poor hubby in the middle of the street.

I’m the kind of person who likes to tackle a bad situation and try to make something better of it, so I took it upon myself, one Mother’s Day, to terrace the front yard with a spade, shovel, garden gloves and a lot of sweat.

Year after year another level appeared. I became obsessed with finding larger rocks to keep the hill from caving in. My biceps actually were visible and muscles showed up where I never knew they existed. I added many perennials on the way down and always felt the watchful eye of my neighbors as I traversed the hill.

After 20 years the hill became self sustaining and didn’t require a lot of work until I planted a ground cover called Crown Vetch. The invasive 4″ pot began to spread like wildfire, eventually overtaking the entire hill.  Once again the neighbors could see me  hacking away at the evil weed,  This time they were more concerned about my safety and a possibly broken hip,.  Eventually my body pretty much said, “That’s enough” and the Crown Vetch won.

We moved last year.  Now the new residents can take over the maintenance.  I felt sad leaving all those hostas, flowering myrtle, Sedum, Echanacia, Iris, Lily of the Valley, tulips, daffodils, creeping phlox, garden phlox, etc., but I really don’t miss the Crown Vetch.  In fact I feel as though a big weight has been lifted from my back.

Sin can be like those invasive little weeds that move into our space and take over.  They’re as insidious as the devil himself, but we all know what happened to him.  If we let the weeds of sin go on living within us, we’ll never be happy, we’ll always feel depressed, lonely, angry or bitter.  If we sincerely repent daily of our sin, we can be sure that the Master Gardener has already paid for our transgressions.  He forgave the world once for all.

I’ve been discovering new treasures on our new “old” property. This place has no hills, lots of flat space, some random perennials that have great potential and no Crown Vetch.

I hope the new owners will forgive me for planting that little 4″ pot, but maybe they will care for that garden as I did – or build a retaining wall – or tear it out completely and  put in a lawn!