Tag Archives: plants

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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Inner Strength…Resilience

Inner Strength…Resilience 3 Part Post

PART 1 DAHLIA FLOWER-INNER STRENGTH

     Recently a friend said to me, “Amy, you like to research, you should look into the Dahlia flower.”

     She was told, in the growth process, a dahlia bud will begin to bloom and close up. Bloom fuller and close up. This cycle continues until it has fully blossomed. Hearing the description touched something in my heart. I have gone through seasons of feeling and knowing I’m growing closer to God. Then, out of nowhere it seems, I’m shot down and I close up. I can relate to the dahlia. Learning about it gave me hope. Going through these seasons of feeling closed up and defeated have left me asking myself, “Where did I go wrong? What did I do to get here?” 

     God spoke to my heart the day my friend told me about the dahlia, “My daughter, you ARE growing. This is PART of the process.”

     A glimmer of hope. I had to know more about this special creation of God called the dahlia. When I hear about something new that intrigues me, I dove in to learn all I could about it.

Dahlia details I found interesting, and how they relate to me.

     ~This flower symbolizes inner strength because of all it endures. 

     Recent life lessons have made me keenly aware of how my God-empowered endurance through the many traumas and difficult circumstances in my life have contributed to my inner strength. I have experienced seasons of obvious growth that have been met with opposition. At times, the opposition felt like an outright smash in the face. My emotional reserves seemed to be depleted and I would close up like the dahlia bud until more strength built up for me to open up fuller. Fully blossomed, I’m not…yet. 

     ~The more a dahlia is cut, the more it will bloom. When the plant is about a foot tall, pinching out three to four inches of the center branch will encourage bushier plants, increase stem count, and the stem length.

     Not long ago I was serving in what I thought was my dream role. I was learning and growing closer to God. Seemingly, out of nowhere I had to decide between that role and whatever was next for me. OUCH! This hurt and still does at times, however, I know that God allowed this pruning for me to be even more fruitful in the plan he has for me. Knowing that when God is doing this work he couldn’t be any closer to me than he is, brings me comfort. “I [Jesus] am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2 NIV)

     ~Removing the dead flowers will keep flowers blooming for months.

     God’s pruning away at the dead things in my life is leading me to be more alive than I’ve ever been. This is painful. Releasing those things to God can be difficult because they have been a part of me for so long. I have to trust that God knows best, he is THEE Master Gardener.

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Jezreel: God Plants

  Recently I had this image of a beautiful garden. There was an array of colors and types of plants and flowers. What made this garden different from any other was that God revealed to me this garden is within my heart, not in my yard. As I began to contemplate what God was trying to show me, I looked out at my backyard. I am a very visual person. Looking out at my outdoor flowerbed, I could gain a clearer image of this garden the Lord was showing me. Colorful flowers. Weeds. Grass. All these things are found in the flowerbed in my yard. My thoughts drifted deeper into what this garden image could mean. I’m all about mental pictures and examples that help me to understand concepts and also be able to share with others.

  Our creator God (Elohim), is extraordinarily creative; not only when He created all things in the beginning, He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This means He is still extraordinarily creative now. In God’s revelations to me, He shares mental pictures and illustrations to go along with them. This garden in my heart is no different. Our Creator shared with me that He plants (Jezreel) seeds of beautiful fragrant flowers and varying plants in my heart. The enemy comes along and plants weed seeds and destructive plants in my heart. However, I can’t place all the blame on the enemy because I sometimes allow these seeds to be planted or even dig the ground up and plant them myself. At times, the destructive plants have been placed there by someone else and I had no say in it. All is not lost! God is the Master Gardener. He can uproot any weed, any destructive plant. Some keys to the garden becoming free of the weeds and destructive plants is for me to invite the Master Gardener to enter my garden and give Him access to every aspect of it. I have to allow Him the freedom and unlimited access to every seed, flower, plant, weed, and blade of grass growing in my garden. Even the ones that I don’t like but have grown so used to having there, I don’t think I know how to live without them. Even the hefty destructive plants with the thick roots that grow down very deep.

  God, my Master Gardener knows the plan for my garden. He has always known the plan and can see the beautiful lush garden that will be when the pruning, weeding, and yanking is complete. I need only to trust in The Creator’s plan. When I was born, my Heavenly Father had already planted the seeds of love, joy, peace, compassion, grace, mercy, forgiveness, redemption, and restoration in my heart. He has entrusted the care and growth of the seeds to first my parents and then to me. I can choose to allow the weeds and destructive plants that exist in my heart garden or I can relinquish control to the One who created my heart.

  What about you? Besides the lovely things the Creator planted in your heart, what else has been planted there? What are you willing to allow the Master Gardener do in your heart garden so that it can become what He created it to be? Have you invited Him into that space? Have you given Him freedom and access to prune, weed, and yank out whatever He deems necessary? You are loved by the Creator of your heart! Because you are created in the image of God, you are worthy to be called a child of God; all you need to do is invite Him into your life and accept His forgiveness as you admit to Him that you have sinned by allowing the weeds to be planted in your heart and also planted some there yourself. He’s running toward you! Will you meet your Heavenly Father in the garden of your heart?

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