A fence line- a metaphor for life…... There are many metaphors used to describe a person’s life…..I’m sure I’m not the first person to use this comparison of a "fence line"…. But it entered my brain Saturday morning as Greg and I were out doing more yard work at the KC house.
The east fence line looks as if it has been neglected over the years. Vines and volunteer trees have created a dense growth in which leaves have collected. At best, the previous owner cut off some of these, unfortunately the remaining old stumps have sent up sucker branches. There is some nice ground cover, which I call “periwinkle” since I don’t know the real name. This ground cover has small periwinkle colored flowers in the spring, so I want to encourage this growth, while removing all the unwanted vegetation.
As I was snipping out dead branches and the new spring growth which is intertwined in the fence, I thought how difficult this now is to clean out. How much easier it would be if cleaning were done over the years on a regular basis. It reminded me of the need to regularly assess and clean out emotional baggage .ie. …..“vines” and over growth that can clutter up our lives. Often these vines are planted in childhood and if not pruned and tended to, our adult lives can be affected by this unwanted overgrowth.
Awareness, forgiveness and love would be some of the useful tools used to prune this emotional overgrowth.
How much more enjoyable is a life lived free on old hurts, old habits, and old negative thinking patterns. The longer neglected, the more time consuming this clean out work is, but good progess is possible.
Yet, no matter how vigilant and regular the snipping and pruning is done, there are some hurts that hang on….. and become part of your life fence. Probably none of us have a totally clean fence line.
I'm pretty sure your periwinkle will thrive now :). It will find new growth with room to breathe and move freely! Great post!
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