As you know, I’ve been slowly (very slowly) reclaiming a garden in my back yard.  And I’ve found regular weeds, super-sized weeds with deep roots, and vines.  Nasty vines.  I think they might be bittersweet.  They’ve wrapped themselves around everything, somehow even managing to reach up to tree branches overhanging the garden and pulling them down.  And wherever they touch the ground, they seem to root.

Sometimes you can’t even see the plants because the vines have completely smothered them.

(c) Kathleen Thompson     I know there's a bush in there somewhere.

It’s one thing to know the vines need to go.  It’s another thing to actually do it.

It can be hard to even know where to start.  So, rather than stand and stare at the vines, trying to figure it out, I just started pulling on one.

Sometimes it wasn’t connected to anything else.  So it easily came out.  At other times, it threatened to take out the good plants too.  Wrapped tightly around them and rooted in more than one place, it was sucking the life out of the shrubs I had planted.

And then there’s the roots.  They spread in several different directions underground.  If you don’t get them all out of the ground, another plant will quickly grow where you just ripped the old one out.  And they’re bright orange.  Like a warning.

(c) Kathleen Thompson.    Roots from just one vine.

So I’m clipping the vines out of the branches, tracing the plant to the roots, and trying to dig out as many as I can.  Because I know if I don’t, I’ll be doing this again in probably a month.

At the same time, I know it’s impossible to find and dig up all the roots.  The only way to really get rid of them would be to spray poison on the plants and let it travel to the roots and kill the entire plant.  And I’m trying not to use that poison at all because it’s bad for the environment.

At this point, I’m not sure how well this will work.  If these vines come back quickly, I may have to try and find another approach.

What nasty vines end up taking root in our lives?  Twisting around our good branches and sucking the life out of us?  Making us less fruitful?  For me, it’s the feeling of not being enough.  The voice that says, “You always work hard, and it doesn’t yield fruit.  It’s just one frustration after another.  There’s something wrong with you.”

And, just like with the vines in my garden, it’s one thing to know these thoughts need to go.  It’s another thing entirely to actually get rid of them.

Do you have anything like that in your life right now?  If so, I can tell you what won’t work:

1. Staring at the situation trying to figure it all out in your head
2. Clipping the tops off without attempting to get to the roots
3. Pulling at the roots with your own strength

It will probably take a pitch fork and a shovel to loosen the soil around the roots.  It will take digging deeper and wider than you have before.  And they’ll probably show up again more than once.  Just like the bittersweet vines in my garden.

I didn’t intend to grow bittersweet.  And yet somehow it ended up in my garden.  I’m sure you didn’t intend to grow everything in your life either.  But somehow it ended up part of you.  And just like in my garden, I’m doing some digging through my life.  Maybe it’s time for you to do the same.

Would you like to make a commitment to dig out vines in your life today?  Leave a comment.