Why don’t we celebrate weeds?

A while ago I had the idea for ‘conversations of curiosity.’ Conversations where we have the opportunity to explore what we know or have been taught about life and the world. It may well become a podcast at some point or just a point of interest for my blogs and news updates! 

I was pondering the idea further while I was gardening last week. I was inspired to begin growing flowers last year by the lovely Nicola Bird, a fellow coach who created a facebook group to grow and share cut flowers with those in her community, as a way to spread happiness. I’ll add a link to the info below..

Sowing, growing and giving cut flowers to those in our communities that could do with a smile.
https://thefloralproject.co.uk/pages/about

Anyway…. In my quest to grow a variety of flowers I planted some seeds, some in my mini greenhouse and a whole array of seeds directly scattered in the soil at the front of our house to support our local Bees.

Now, during the process of growing there is a stage where, if you’ve planted them randomly like I did, you can’t tell what will become flowers and what are considered weeds. At this stage my husband said, “They all look a bit weed like, how do you know which are the weeds to pull out?” 

I hesitated to pull anything because, in all honesty, I didn’t really know the difference.

It did make me think though and get curious, exploring what actually constitutes a weed.. 

apparently in it’s simplest form it’s the following –

‘Weeds are defined as any plant growing where it’s unwanted.’ A lot of effort seems to have been made in trying to distinguish between desirable and undesirable plants as well as products created to destroy them too.

Well, having not pulled anything, it’s fair to say we have the most beautiful array of flowers with more and more coming up each day. the bees are LOVING them too! 

Now that the plants are more mature It’s easier to see what would be considered weeds and what are actual flowers that I’ve planted.

So, last week as I was tending to them, after the recent dry spell, I noticed there was one very resilient tall plant that had not yet flowered and I wasn’t sure what it was. I left it a couple of days before identifying it as a flowering weed.

It got me thinking, from that place of curiosity, who decided that a plant was an acceptable flower as opposed to a weed that should be obliterated? How did that classification come about and why??

When it comes down to it this is simply a human judgement isn’t it! Nature, in its glorious diversity does not decide anything is more or less acceptable than its counterpart. The bees don’t visit only the flowers that we consider acceptable, the nectar produced by flowering weeds is considered just as valuable isn’t it! In fact dandelion flowers, one of the first flowering plants in the spring, are a really important early source of food for bees. 

In PSYCH-K® at the foundational workshops we share information about the qualities of the left and right hemispheres of the brain as part of the science that underpins how PSYCH-K® works.

We look at the ways that the left and right hemisphere’s process information differently and, as Jill Bolte- Taylor (author of the book – My stroke of insight) shares ‘dare I say, they have very different personalities.’ It’s the left hemisphere of the brain that is driven to compartmentalise things, whereas the right hemisphere is all about the holistic approach, bringing things together. I often use the example of a bunch of flowers when explaining the differences. 

If there was a vase of flowers on the table, the left hemisphere would be separating the different flowers and colours and perhaps even counting how many white flowers there were as oppose to other varieties. The right hemisphere would be seeing the whole vase of flowers together in a big picture way, unified in its collective beauty.

Let me say that neither of these approaches are right or wrong, that would be another judgement entirely. The ideal is that we have both hemispheres processing incoming information together, allowing us the benefit of a whole brain state through which to perceive the world. However, we have lived in a left brain dominated society for a very long time. Think about the Victorian era where living things were collected and classified as a pastime. Initially this probably started as a process of voracious learning, but perhaps ending in the belief that we are the dominant species and we know best. Look where that belief has got us, with the current state of our climate!!! 

Anyway, I digress… I just wanted to share this little internal conversation of curiosity I had while gardening, in case it helps to spark conversations of curiosity within you too. All too often we accept what we’ve been told or taught without question, yet, actually, if we return to that place of childlike curiosity and ask why more often, perhaps we can identify some of our own limiting beliefs, or some common cultural beliefs. When we do so, we can then decide whether they are still serving us or not.

What can weeds teach us? Well, they are often super resilient because they’ve had to overcome adversity or lack of support in a world where they are not openly accepted. They bloom anyway, no matter what we think of them, even in the most hostile of environments, like through the  cracks in a pavement. They are usually able to become a full expression of themselves, regardless of these challenges, and they keep coming back no matter how hard we try and suppress them. They are just as beautiful as any other flower/plant if we choose to see them that way. So it really comes down to our individual perception, our perception of them and the world around us. What if we celebrate them exactly as they are, knowing that they have just as much to offer as their counterparts. Wouldn’t the world be a much better place!!!

Have a wonderful summer

Sharon xoxo