Farming is in my blood.
My Grandfather Ernest Eason farmed a piece of land located about two kilometres from my house. During the day he was a dynamite man at the Talc Mines, then in the evening he was a farmer, working the field till dark. My father also owns farmland that we share as a family, not far from our home.
“Backyard hobbyists?”
Nah, bigger then that, but not your grocery store supplier of veggies either. Most of our fields are a few hundred feet long and wide. Large enough to fill the family root cellar at the end of the growing season.
The past few years I’ve helped prepare the ground using my fathers Massey Harris tractor, plant the vegetables and take up the veggies during the harvest. One particular task I’ve never enjoyed though is weeding.
#1: It is boring. You’re bent over, hauling up weeds and throwing them away. *Pull Yank* Yank Pull* The same thing over and over.
#2: It’s hard work! When you own a large field, you get can get ALOT of weeds (we do not use pesticide or any artificial chemicals either).
#3: I worked for a landscaping company one summer, and I did a ton of weeding every day; so I pretty much got sick of it.
Side story!
Honka tonka
It was the Summer of 2014. The sun was blazing, the temperature was around 25 degrees Celsius and I was bent over a museum garden bed hauling weeds. Grey shirt, dark navy pants, black hat – not exactly the best coloured attire for outdoor work.
As I ripped the weeds from the depths with my rhythmic pulling, I was interrupted by a convertible horn blaring behind me. I jumped up (thinking I was about to be rammed against the side of the building by a vehicle) only to see a museum worker stick her head out and shout, “Nice Buttocks!!!”
Woahhhhhh.
Back up the wheelbarrow here.
“Ain’t this G-rated, Christian?”
Yeah it is, that’s why I changed what she actually said to a more family approved word. 😅
Yes indeed, quite the awkward moment, considering she wasn’t passing by, rather she was pulling into a parking spot right behind me. I half formed a grin and opened my mouth but no words came out.
*** “Christian’s brain to speech centre, I repeat Christian’s brain to speech centre, do you copy?!”
“Aye sir! I’m hitting the switch but nothin is happening Captain! The words ain’t comin!”
For anyone that knows me at all, I don’t usually experience a loss for words, but this lady’s boldness got the better of me.
Now back to weeding!
Choking Ya Out!
Weeds are invasive! Their seeds can travel long distances; they attack other plants (sometimes killing them); and they can grow like crazy. I found this out the hard way last week when myself and Melissa went up the field behind our house and started weeding the potatoes.
Four wheelbarrows loads later…about 1/30 of the field weeded…
Oh my gosh, talk about weeds everywhere.
I found three different weeds that looked identical to the potato leaves; and if you stared at them from a distance – two of them in particular – you could barely tell the difference. As I started hauling them up, twice the roots from some of the tallest weeds, were wrapped around the potato plant and hauled up small potatoes with it.
I was killing the potatoes by hauling up the weeds!
The field wasn’t weeded when it should have been – because I never took the time – and now the vegetation was suffering because of it.
No wonder Jesus told the parable about the weeds to a bunch of farmers and laymen.
“Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’”
Matthew 13:24-30 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.13.24-29.NLT
This got me thinking. So I did a little research and found an interesting site about weeds. (Click here to check out the site https://wssa.net/wp-content/uploads/WSSA-Facts-About-Weeds.pdf )
Here are a couple of facts: one particular weed can absorb 300 gallons of water per day! It drinks all the water, stunting the growth of any nearby vegetation. Fact 17 on the site says that Horseweed can travel up to 300 miles in the air!!! Like by’s come on.
As I read down through the site I was amazed at the different kinds of weeds and how aggressive they can be. If weeds are left unchecked, watch out! You could lose your crop within no time.
Weeds in your life?
We could also say the same about our own distractions, hey?
You know the cellphone you can barely put down?
🙋♂️
How about the social media you can’t stop checking?
🙋♀️🙋♂️
Maybe you can’t stop binge watching shows or playing video games?
🙋♀️🙋🙋♂️
Weeds, like technology, can swallow up your time and take you away from what matters most. You might be the father or mother sitting in your living, while your children play around you, but you got your head down playing CandyCrush or checking Facebook for the latest “perfect” photo of someone else’s life.
Rather then putting your phone down and picking up the blocks and building a tower too.
Or maybe you’re like me. I get up early to read my bible and spend time with God, but sometimes I catch myself checking the news or the weather on my phone while my Bible sits unopened on my lap.
Shoot! I say to myself, What am I doing?
So I open the Bible app on my phone, start reading a bible devotional, and then I check my latest move on Scrabble app?
Like come on.
Am I talking to someone here today?
We need to shut off our tech. We need to silence our phones. Because the only person missing out… wait, that doesn’t actually apply. It’s not just you that is effected, it could be anyone around you.
It’s the person sitting in the waiting room next to you, that badly needs someone to ask how their day is going because they’ve been battling with suicidal thoughts because they feel so alone.
Or maybe your driving the road, and your best friend puts up a great FB status, and you have you give it a heart, followed by two smiles and three exclamation points. Then the oncoming vehicle has to swerve to avoid a head on collision because you just crossed the center line…
Friends, let’s do ourselves a huge favour.
Let’s…. sllloooowww…..down…..
Take a minute to pause. Right now. Before we clue up.
…………..
Weeds entangle. Weeds choke out the goodness. They can also be removed if you put the effort in. Technology can entangle. Technology can choke out the goodness if you abuse it, which many owners of cellphones do on a daily basis.
I have been one of them.
I need to unplug. Do you want to as well?
That’s why I love writing this blog, because I challenge myself first way before I challenge you. It helps me stay accountable. So thank you for reading this today. After I finish todays post (as I am using my phone until I get a Macbook some day☺️) my cell is going on the fireplace mantle to stay for the rest of the evening.
Have a blessed day.
Christian
The Eason Clan 