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I have a bit of garden with herbs, tomatoes, peppers, things like that. Anyway, even though I love my garden, keeping up with the weeds is always something that I have a hard time doing. In any case, I let a few of the weeds grow, just to see them develop.

One of these is a particularly nasty specimen. It’s got spines just about everywhere. The edges of the leaves are all lined with needles. It has been growing to over six feet. When you pull them, they often break off, leaving a taproot which can be very difficult to remove. They are hollow, but the membrane that forms the stem is full of sticky white sap. In all they are none too pleasant.

This plant is growing right next to my porch where I usually sit of a morning, so it’s been really easy to watch the plant’s progress. I noticed that it popped several nice flowers, yet tiny, compared to the rest of it’s awkward growth. It made me think that this type of weed goes through so much work, risking daily that someone would remove it, being of little aesthetic value, to put forth these little blossoms, is something of a miracle.

It got me thinking further that perhaps there is wisdom in watching the weeds grow. The whole thing is an apt metaphor for all the trauma that people endure in life. That the ugly, prickly, nasty, and sticky things can bring beauty into the world. The condition is, we must not give up. The singular constant with inner work is that one must practice strict discipline. Difficulties cannot be overcome by giving in to the negative thought patterns which usually are the main source of difficulty. Like the weed, we must endure the dangers and difficulties in order to put forth our flowers.