We bought our house for the yard. It’s easily 2-1/2 times the size of the footprint of the house, with an enormous rhododendron, a gorgeous magnolia tree, ridiculously productive raspberry bushes, and an old stone wall running through it. We heart this yard!
And yet, it is clogged with weeds. I have filled three trash cans with the little suckers I’ve pulled out of the ground, and I’m not even half-way through the yard. And more weeds pop up every day.
I am a huge proponent of small steps that add up to big progress over time, so the weed-eliminating project is right up my alley. I’ve always suggested weeding as a form of mind-body practice, and man, am I reaping the benefits of that advice now! Funny how we teach what we need to learn. J
Here’s how my yard is like life – if you aren’t consistently taking steps to remove stuff you don’t want, whether they are thoughts, or tchotchkes, or habits, they are gonna completely overtake the landscape.
To some people, the thought of weeding a huge yard sounds, well, huge. It sounds like MORE to do. To me, weeding is all about less. Getting rid of superfluous stuff so that only the one or two things you truly love can flourish.
The project has definitely helped me do less time-sucky stuff, things like hang out on Facebook, play Words with Friends, channel surf. If I’m at home with time on my hands, I’m weeding. Crouch, pull, toss on the pile. Crouch, pull, toss on the pile. Crouch pull, toss on the pile. Not much going on there.
And yet, so much is going on – I see how some weeds pop out at the slightest tug, while others (namely, dandelions) have roots fat and long as carrots. Others (namely, ivy) seem pretty enough until you realize they extend half the length of the yard and are suffocating everything in their path. So much space is created when you do less. Sometimes doing less is easy, and sometimes it takes some righteous tugs.
One thing I’ve also been doing less of this summer is teaching in person. The Chill Tour has remained on hiatus as I’ve been really sinking in to the idea of doing less. And yet! I had a vision to bring more chill to more people and I made promises to people that they would have an opportunity to come do less with me.
So I’m proud and excited to announce the Virtual Chill Tour – a teleretreat where I’ll teach and interview some of my very favorite people about how they lead themselves away from stress and toward all things awesome by choosing to do less. It’s happening the month of August. Each Sunday, I’ll interview two people on how to bring more chill to your life by doing less. I’m calling them Stress-Free Sundays, and my intention is to help you embrace and practice new chill-promoting techniques before life gets back to its full-steam-ahead swing in September.
It’s free for you, and if you are traveling or can’t make Sunday afternoons, I’ll run replays on Tuesday nights (or you can purchase audios of every interview and listen to them at your leisure for $27).
See who I’m talking to and sign up here!
don’t toss all those weeds! some of them could be a delicious dinner.
Oops, I did toss them. The upside is, I unintentionally made compost out of them. They were mostly ivy and something with really woody stems and tiny leaves. I never thought that they might be edible — thanks for planting that seed (no pun intended) in my brain for next year!