Space to Breathe

I recently spent a day doing yard work. With a rainy weekend on the horizon, it was a perfect opportunity to get out there and take care of some of the areas that were bugging me.  I can’t really call myself a gardener. While I have had some success with plants indoors and out, the care of some still escapes me. But yard work, I can do that.

Working in the yard almost always causes my thoughts to turn to decluttering. When I look at the yard as a whole entity, I get the same feeling that many clients have when looking at a room or house full of clutter. It’s overwhelming. The shrubs, the plants, the weeds all need attention. Where do I begin and how much of a dent could I possibly make? Then, like the decluttering process, I just start. To be fair, I did have a few things in mind. Plant the lily and pull out the dead sunflower stems for starters. Apparently, last year I planted annual vs. perennial sunflowers. While I watched and waited in vain to see signs of new life, this annual flower wasn’t having it. Moving on, lily and sunflowers, check. These two intentions were simple enough to accomplish. I also knew that old, brittle, brown leaves were still nestled beneath other plantings, so I set out to clear those areas. That is the kind of job where you see your progress immediately. As the leaves were disappearing, I felt a sense of liberation for the plants. There was space to breathe. Little stems of new growth that were making valiant efforts to break through the leaf debris now had the space to breathe and freedom to grow, uninhibited.

Removing the Riff Raff

While I was at it, I decided to tackle some of the overgrown foliage that I felt was hindering the potential growth of other nearby plants. So, a few plants were treated to a seasonal haircut. But oh my, the quantity of dead branches, as well as a planting or two, was embarrassingly high. How did it get this way?  It was clear that one plant was gone for sure. Even freeing it from the overgrowth of the ambitious plant behind it was not enough to hope for the promise of new growth. It had to be removed. It was a feisty little fella, and it took some doing to dig it out of the earth, but out it came. The shovel unfortunately bore the brunt of this exercise as it snapped in two, but – more space to breathe.

As I snipped and chopped my way from one shrub and plant to the next, I continued to feel a sense of freedom and relief. I felt the plants were breathing better now that space was created around them. They had been choking with the co-mingled riff raff of dead foliage and branches. They were not able to enjoy the full extent of sunshine and the dead parts were taking up precious space.

Just like clutter.

Given the chance, clutter can take up so much space in our lives. Since it comes in many forms, it infiltrates like the co-mingling riff raff of dead branches. We don’t always know how it got there, but we know it when we see it. Luckily, it’s remedial. It can be removed just as the old, brittle brown leaves of a season gone by. A new shovel will help make the job easier.