Tag Archives: determination

Inner Strength…Resilience (Part 2)

Part 2 of 3 Japanese Knotweed.

     My mind wanders from the dahlia (from Part 1) to another plant I am very familiar with. Japanese Knotweed. This ‘weed’ is lacking in the beauty and desirability of the dahlia, it does share characteristics of strength and determination. Knotweed, I’ve realized, is a solid example of resilience.

     My journey with Japanese Knotweed started a few years ago when this pesky plant kept popping up in a flower bed that I had painstakingly arranged with my desired decor and plant life. This determined pest didn’t fit the profile for what I had planned. My husband dug the root out and burned it, only to have it grow back quickly. The first summer I was mildly annoyed at it. By the next summer I was too busy to worry about my flower beds, therefore the persistent plant was allowed to grow as it wanted. Our third spring with our unwanted guest was a new story for me.

     As the new growth of the season began to sprout up out of the ground, I decided to discover what this species of plant life was and eradicate it for good. My iPhone revealed to me what we were dealing with. Japanese Knotweed. Wanting to learn what I was up against, I dove into finding out about this invader. My soft investigation on the  web yielded enough information to know this plant would be a challenge to rid my yard of. Determination drove me to try nonetheless. Advice from the web was mixed. Some said don’t mess with it. Others gave simple detailed instructions as if it were an easy thing to do.

Web details about Japanese Knotweed:

~ It’s considered one of the world’s 100 worst invasive species. Its bamboo-like stems can grow up to 15 feet tall at a rate of up to four inches a day.

~ Live Knotweed is practically immune to burning and it releases chemicals into the soil that can stop other plants from growing.

~ Shoots can grow through weak spots in walls, asphalt, and concrete.

     I set out determined to win this battle. No plant was going to defeat me. I would dig every last root out of the ground. My first attempt seemed like a win, briefly. My husband and I dug up many shoots, laid them on boards to dry out and be burnable. This was a defeating exercise! Each root we dug out revealed more below the surface. Every small win seemed to be a bigger loss. Hours upon hours of digging resulted in more and more shoots coming up out of the ground within 48 hours. I lost sleep. Japanese Knotweed became a topic in most of my conversations and even a blog post or two. I wanted to warn everyone about this extreme invasive plant that was near impossible to eliminate. 

     Feeling defeated and at my wits end, I called an organization that deals with invasive plants. The expert on the other end informed me it’s best to leave it alone or hire a knowledgeable landscaper specially trained to uproot/destroy it. This at a cost of about $100.00 an hour with a time frame of 5-10 years to be completely rid of it and no guarantees it would be entirely gone. Our other option was to personally spend 5-10 years treating the plant leaves each fall with two potent chemicals, at a cost of around $125.00 a year. None of these options seemed doable to me. I lost more sleep. Hiring someone wasn’t an option we could afford. The thought of putting strong chemicals in the ground where our drinking water comes from wasn’t an option I was in favor of either. I decided to concede to the knotweed. It will just grow in the yard, untampered with by me.

     Through the course of battling this formidable opponent, I began to ask God, “What do you want me to learn or take away from this experience? There’s got to be something good in this.”

Look for the conclusion in Part 3.

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Transplanted

The first 19 years of my life, I lived in the same house with my parents and my sister. Little did I know when I moved out of that house at the age of 19, I would move approximately 23 times over the course of the next 35 years. At first I said, “moving is fun.” I could say this when all of my earthly belongings fit into the box of my fiancé’s jacked-up pickup truck. By the time we added the belongings of two children, I began to declare, “I don’t like to move. I like change; however, the moving thing has gotten old.”

One might ask, “so why did you keep moving if you don’t like to move?” That would be a good; and fair, question. One that I can answer honestly. The first dozen or so moves were situational. Our situations warranted a change of location. Some of the reasons for our moves were: a house fire, a foreclosure, frozen pipes in our rental while I was pregnant with one baby and a had toddler in tow. Some moves were temporary in nature. We found ourselves staying with my in-laws for a couple short periods as we waited to move into a more ‘permanent’ place. We also utilized a camper a couple of times in transition from one place to another. That’s an experience all its own.

Since coming into a relationship with Jesus at the age of 28, I believe God has directed the majority of our moves. Even though it has been hard at times to pack up all of our belongings, do all the things associated with a move, and get adjusted in our new locations, each place has added to who I am today. Each living space has added another layer of strength, knowledge, and perseverance I didn’t have before. Many experiences in these locations were so taxing that I was tempted to give up. I would pray for God to remove the obstacles. He usually didn’t. One thing I have learned is sometimes He allows the obstacles to remain so my character, strength, and perseverance can grow. I think my ability to be more patient has grown as well.

We have battled basement mold, bedbugs, fleas, Japanese Knotweed, putting a doublewide on fresh property, two foreclosures, owning/managing a family restaurant, being landlords, and running a bed & breakfast. Thank God this wasn’t all at the same time. The restaurant, being landlords, and running a B & B were all at the same time; the rest was fortunately spaced out some.

The point in reminiscing over all of my family’s moves is what caught my attention some weeks ago. While looking at a tall mullein plant at a campground, it occurred to me how taking certain plants from one location to another can sometimes encourage them to grow better than they had before. Conversely, the opposite can be true as well. Maybe they prefer more shade and their original location placed them in all day long direct sunlight. It may also be the original location was a crowded flower bed that stifled growth of the plant. There can be a multitude of reasons for whether a plant grows well and thrives in any given location. In my contemplation of the mullein plant, it occurred to me how the same can be said for people; specifically myself.

Some places we have lived, I noticed how I grew in my character, my faith, or other areas. Other places, I felt stifled and maybe a little stagnant. However, I have also realized recently that even in the places and spaces where I thought there’s not been any growth, there actually was. Or, maybe they were just rest spots where I could store some energy for the next part of the journey. In any case, moving many times to different areas; and sometimes back to well known areas, has fostered in me the ability to transition well and make new friends better and easier than I could as I was growing up. If I had it to do over again, would I want to move so many times? Nope. I wouldn’t. But maybe it’s just what God had planned for me to be shaped into who He planned me to be all along.

Transplanting people or plants can equal a stronger root system. It can also stifle growth if the new location isn’t conducive for that individual person or plant. Or maybe; as I have learned with knotweed, there really is growth, you just can’t see it because it’s below the surface. I have grown in perseverance, character, strength, faith, wellness, and I know a multitude of others ways through the many moves/transplants and transitions. In the end, I don’t know if I would change much about our moves. Other details, I’m sure.

#TransplantGrowth

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