Weeding and Shedding Old Skin

I am trying to bring
my love of gardening to
the task of
     unearthing invasive weeds:
patterns and habits that choke my life


no longer effective
     no longer needed.

If humans were like reptiles,
shedding their skin,
     that old thing that limits them,
as they
grow in spirit

the world would be...
...perhaps not a 'better place'
but one I think
     I'd enjoy more.

If we never assumed we had 'matured'
'grown up'
     never assumed we were 'finished'

always believed there was growing yet to do

then what?

I don't want to stay the same.
The same limitations
the same behaviour
     causing all of the same old problems I've

visited so many times
before.

Enough!
If living life a certain way
led to results I didn't like
     repeatedly

why would I carry on in the same way!

To break free from this fear
     the tie that binds me
requires change
a new approach
which,
of course,
I haven't done before
     and so may be clumsy at
which may not lead to results I like
     right away.

But I owe it to myself
to give this new approach
the same honour I gave the old one - that one which didn't work.
     The honour of trying it repeatedly.

Perhaps, in time,
it will become
the new normal.


I'm calling on snake energy now
     Oh wonderful, sinuous friend
please help me wriggle out of my old skin
and find ways
to stay safe
     until the new one has become less tender.

very approachable garter snake, summer 2009