Weeding the Garden

  As I went to bed tonight and laid there next to my husband my mind would not shut off so I decided to come down to my computer and write. Often through out my day as I am working or doing something around the house my mind creates analogies, life lessons that are related to what ever task I am doing at the time. The most recent one was when I was weeding in my garden.
   In our backyard we have a rather large garden. When we first moved into our home their was no garden, only grass, not cool. So we decided to make a place to plant fruits and vegetables to store for the winter. It was hard work to make a spot to grow things in, but once it was made I was so excited to plant all the seeds I had bought at the store. I planted everything in one day and I was so excited to see everything grow. When I would water the garden I would pick the few little weeds that were sprouting. It wasn't long till things started really to grow, but the things that were growing weren't the things I wanted to grow, WEEDS!!! Weeds had invaded my precious garden, filling each row with green choking vines of death!! I was not to be deterred so I began to weed. Row, after row, after row, after row I weeded, Peder weeded, and we even convinced a friend to help weed. It seemed no matter our efforts to dig these weeds out they just kept coming back! Because of the large effort we had put into weeding we decided to take a few days off, but no sooner had I turned my back that the weeds seemed to multiply by millions!
   I couldn't stand looking at my garden because I could feel the plants being suffocated by the morning glory that had taken up residency in each row. They had come from the "grass" of our yard. I say "grass" because our yard consists of 90% weeds. So I guess it is no surprise that our garden had been over run by these evil villains. Looking at this tragic situation I decided to take control and spent  several hours each day pulling weeds, determined to never allow my garden to get that bad again. I was only successful for a few days till I grew weary of weeding, but it was during this time I realized that gardening is just like our lives.
  Each one of us has planted a garden full of precious things and we have to choose wether or not we are going to weed our garden of unholy things. We can choose to weed our garden from the bad TV shows we watch, the movies that drive the spirit from our presence, the unkind words or thoughts we say or think, the hurtful acts we commit, and many other things. These weeds of life creep in unnoticed and if unchecked can over take our sacred garden. Many days it seems easier to just let these weeds in, allowing them to grow deep roots in our precious soil, but we must make the choice to rid ourselves of these unwelcome visitors. If left unchecked the weeds of life can completely over run our garden and when we do decide to weed our lives of what we thing are the weed we can unknowingly pluck out the precious little seed we had so painstakingly planted long ago.
     Many times we will fall short of a weedless garden, in fact it will happen often, but we are given the blessing of help from the master gardener that lifts us and helps us pull the weeds that at first seemed impossible to get rid of and he also helps us discern between the weeds and the plants we desire to grow. However, the master gardener only comes when he is invited and only helps when he is asked. It is our choice to allow him to assistance in this difficult task, but we will never regret allowing him in. The only true regret comes from keeping him from helping. We may think that we are perfectly capable of weeding on our own, or maybe we are just blind to the weeds in our garden. Its at these times we need to realize every garden has weeds that cannot be pulled alone, every garden is full of weeds that must be removed. We are the garden and what we do with our garden determines how our life plays out. We make the choice......no one can make it for us.......

New beginnings

 I am not a writer by any means. In fact, writing is one of those things I struggle at the most. I have never been good at spelling or grammar. There are many days when I sit pondering why I was even let into graduate school with my inability to produce coherent writing.  I heard once that," the best way to get good at something is to continue to do it repeatedly till you get it right. " So here is my attempt to get it right by writing.
    I guess I should start by telling a little of my story. I was born in Las Vegas, NV to two wonderful people Doug and Joan Lords and three crazy siblings Janet, Joseph, and Desirae. It was not long after my birth that my parents decided it was time to move to a desert town called Elko, NV. Where for 16 years I played in the sage brush, beat-up boys on the playground, gained a love for music, a passion for the outdoors, and made life long friends. When it was just my parents and I left at home my mom and dad decided its was time to move to Washington state to a small town called Pomeroy were we lived only a few months before we moved to Clarkston, WA.
   I graduated from Clarkston High School and went to the same university that my grandfather had attended back in 1949, the University of Idaho. During my time as an undergrad in Moscow, ID I had many crazy adventures, went on a mission to Cape Verde, Africa, and also got a degree in Rangeland Ecology and Management, after changing my degree four times. I also found the man that would bless me with laughter for all eternity Peder Holmstead. We moved to Cache Valley in Utah or Zion as I like to call it, and settled in a small town 15 minutes north of Logan called Smithfield, UT. Not long after we moved we bought a house, two dogs, and five windows. I am currently a graduate student at Utah State University working hard to finish my thesis so I can retire from my career as a professional student and get a real job like becoming a mother or something just as difficult and demanding. My eternal companion works hard each day as a pipefitting and welding apprentice.
  Now that everyone is asleep from my long introduction I guess I should give this blog a direction.....should it be a blog for ranting, telling stories, recording historical events in each of my weeks, maybe a blog of gospel topics, or maybe a blog for recipes...... I think this blog will be one that creates itself over time as I sit down at the computer and decide to write. This will be my life blog, a diary of sorts, that I can fill with my thoughts, insights, hopes, dreams, and desires. I guess the main purpose of this blog is so I have something to help me become a better writer and something I can use to help me procrastinate when I don't want to work on other things. It will be a blog that is......