Last week I was planting daylilies and came across the severed arm of a Spiderman action figure. This in itself was not cause for surprise.
For the past 4 summers, I have been on a quest to coax the barren wasteland around our Up North home into a more fertile landscape. The previous owners had approximately 100 children who scattered their battered toys throughout the acreage.
For 4 summers we have been finding remnants of these playthings and other stuff among the weeds and patches of grass. This has been our lawn care routine. First we patrol the yard for all toy parts, rusty nails, shards of glass and other refuse which we then pick up and redirect to the trash can. The field is then mowed. Finally, we sit on the deck and admire the view.
Then a week or so later more stuff would mysteriously appear. I’ve been annoyed and frustrated because no matter how many times I would clear the yard, more unwanted junk would appear.
I blamed the raccoons. Those sneaky critters were digging up stuff just to annoy me.
But when I found Spidey’s right arm, I had to stop blaming the raccoons.
I finally realized that the riding lawn mower had been sucking up the sandy soil and uncovering these buried items.
Honestly, I had really enjoyed blaming the raccoons. They are very sneaky.
As I picked up a part of Spiderman, (and despite my disappointment no longer being able to blame the raccoons) I realized that Spidey had provided the following lesson about personal growth.
Spidey’s Lesson:
There comes a point in our lives where we decide to make some changes, to make personal improvements, to embark upon a path of personal improvement.
We clean up the junk, tidy up our lives and sit back and enjoy all the personal improvements. But more junk will inevitably pop up – such as bad habits or negative thinking. There’s another round of clean up and deck sitting. Then more junk appears.
And this cycle doesn’t ever seem to stop.
And that’s ok.
No matter how long you are on the path of your right life, junk is going to show up. With luck, over time there will be less junk – but there will still be junk that we’ll have to deal with.
And that’s ok.
It’s a process. And it’s worth it. Just like my yard, we are all in the process of making our lives into masterpieces.
