I love Colorado. That isn’t to say I don’t appreciate the Indianapolis area, where I live, but I LOVE Colorado. One of the great blessings of my life is that my job takes me to Colorado for an extended time every two years. I have been making this pilgrimage for 28 years now, and it never gets old.
When I was single, the trek was easy. I just packed up and left. As my family grew, however, this trip required some planning…someone had to take care of our house, our yard and our dog.
Several years ago, when my kids were little, we asked an 18 year-old girl if she’d house-sit for us when we ventured west. She was mature for her age, and we knew that she’d take care of the place, and our dog, to the best of her ability. We returned to find the everything in good shape, and generally as we left it.
Or so I thought.
A couple days after returning home, I realized that there was a strange plant growing outside our back door. It wasn’t unusual for us to have a weed or two grow through the cracks of our brick pavers, but this plant looked strange….it had grown large very quickly and had red stems leading to the green leaves. I went to my computer and “googled” the plant, and when I saw the picture of my strange weed and read the description, I couldn’t act fast enough.
Jimson weed. Poison.
The description read: “Symptoms include incoherent speech, impaired coordination; rapid heart beat; and dry, flushed or hot skin. In extreme cases, users can experience seizures, intense visual or auditory hallucinations, or cardiac arrest.” Yikes!
Having small children who put everything in their little mouths, I was horrified. What might have happened had my kids found the plant before I did? I shudder at the thought even today.
The 18 year-old girl who watched this plant grow had no idea what it was. Why should she have considered it harmful to anything, much less my kids? She wasn’t wired to think that way. If I had one of my close friends staying in the house, however, I’m pretty sure they’d have been at least observant enough to know that I wouldn’t want a large nasty weed growing up through my pavers. Perhaps they’d have been a little concerned by the ominous look of that fast-growing weed as well.
Here’s my point….who’s watching your backyard? Do you have friends, close friends, who know you and love you enough to speak freely when they see poisonous plants growing in your backyard? Do you have people who will speak up when they see you jeopardizing your job, your kids or your marriage? Who is is your community that will be honest enough to uproot the poisonous plant that threatens you?
I’d love to hear your thoughts…
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Strong analogy. Interestingly I have a friend who loves the jimson weed blossom and has a bunch of it growing at his house. Weeds can be beautiful, or at least appear beautiful. Some are innocuous and others insidious. So true that it is good to have someone who “has your back”, or your backyard as the case may be.
I like the analogy too Chris, you’re so good at that. I would add to your question- who in our communities know us well enough (or willing to dig around in our yard)to see the stuff in our lives that need to be addressed. Am I willing to love the people around me enough to probe a little deeper what’s going on? This fast paced world we live in can drown out authentic relationships with others so easily. Perhaps we want to throw chemicals on everything for a quick fix and be on our “merry” way…