John P. Schulz: Find The Living Room

Quotes and Notes # 289, August 20

A lovely heart-shaped weed that doesn’t quite fit in.

“A weed may be defined as ‘a plant that is in the wrong place’”—Johntheplantman –

My grandmother gave me a Bible for my birthday in 1952. The inscription she wrote on the first page said, “May you grow in wisdom as you grow in stature.”—Well, I did a good quick job with the stature thing, but the other part was slow to develop and I’m still working on it.

I grew tall quickly. I always stood out in a crowd of my peers, but I never quite felt like I fit in. I worried about fitting in for many years, but over time, as I worked on gardens, I found myself pulling weeds and saying, “You just don’t fit in here.” Every now and then, when I found a very nice weed, I would leave it and watch it—or, perhaps, I would dig it up and move it to a place that it seemed to belong in. Sometimes I would nurture the weed and care for it, but most of the time I just left it to its own devices because weeds are strong. Weeds are survivors. A lot of weeds are good-looking and smart.

I am a weed. Now I have learned to look around me and say something like, “I don’t quite fit in here. Maybe if I moved over there I could spread out and reach my potential.”

Do you ever feel like you don’t belong? Do you worry about what others say or think about you? Perhaps you need to re-think your position. Perhaps you need to concentrate on your own growth and your own place.

Grow in wisdom
Share a smile with someone who looks confused
Everything is going to be all right.
John P. Schulz—“Sweetie Drives on Chemo Days.”