Weed out the Weeds

Every spring millions of people around the world spend time weeding their gardens. They pick, they prune, they pull, they pluck. They spend hundreds of dollars on tools and plant food, not to mention the time and energy they personally invest in pulling and plucking. Why? Because it is a must-do hobby? Passion? No more reruns of Oprah on TV? Yes, other than Oprah. Beyond sweating the brow for pleasure there is a deeper meta-physical reason. No, not attempting to find God in the tulips, but clarity. The less there is to look at in the garden the more you see the garden.

Human beings are creatures of logic and order. We create order so we can interpret meaning in our surroundings. It is our sense of control in a seemingly random, chaotic world. An orderly garden with no weeds or dead previous-year leftovers is much easier to interpret. With no visible flower-garbage we see the flowers themselves, and if we look long enough we also begin to see the connections between flowers. Groups of colors, layers, mixtures, all a deliberate display of neatness and order by the floral artist.


Buddhist monks spend most of their waking hours deep in temples focusing their minds. Ridding their inner conscience of mental weeds. Dressed in uni color robes with shaven heads. Uninterested in the material or mental possessions most of us cling to, or seem to be preoccupied with collecting. They have a quest to reach holy spiritual oneness. A supreme clarity where they focus entirely on one thing - enlightenment. No wonder the Dalai Lama speaks with razor sharp clarity.

We all try to communicate with clarity. In the way we speak to others. In our tweets and FBing. In our writing. In our blogging. Often we forget to weed the garden. Our gardens are filled with specialty words, work-jargon, linguistic tongue-twisters and sugar words. We expect others to see our beautiful and deliberate attempt to display our flowers but clutter messes the view. Often the gardener fails to see it the same way.

When you communicate, pay attention to your garden. Weed (and I don't mean smoke it). Let people see the flowers.