Monday, November 19, 2012

Garden Principle of Time Use

I am not a gardener. I really don't understand why you can't have weeds among the veggies. Are weeds really that bad? I guess so. I'll take the word of those who know that they are.

What I really don't understand about gardening is the principle of thinning out crowded plants. Frankly, as a Messie, I tend to feel that more is better. So what if the plants are a little crowded! I can hardly bring myself to pull up those healthy plants just because there are too many. If five plants are nice, fifty are better. Right? WRONG!

The truth is that if there are too many plants crowded together, all the plants will suffer and keeping more plants will actually reduce the production of good plants at harvest.

This is the way it is with life too. When we crowd too much into our lives, have too many activities back to back, the activities become sickly. The quality of each activity becomes poorer. How can we raise the quality of our activities? One way is by cutting out many of them, thinning them out, so to speak. Then the activities we have left will be healthier and more satisfying to us. Remember, we also need time for quietness and reflection between our activities just as plants need space between each one in order to grow.

So don't crowd the garden of your life. You may have to weed out some of those perfectly healthy activities for the sake of the quality of your life. One of the activities which will improve in quality as a result, of course, is the housekeeping.  It won't be squeezed to death by all those other activities. So, if you are the treasurer of the garden club, have pottery and exercise classes, help out an elderly friend who needs to be taken places, plant a garden, and make all of your own Christmas presents - STOP! Stand back and look at your schedule. No wonder your house doesn't get done and you feel like you're on a treadmill.

Start thinning out some of those healthy, good activities which are crowding each other so much that life itself is less, not more, satisfying.  Remember, crowding doesn't work for your garden and it won't work for your life either.


Warmly,
THE ORGANIZER LADY®, Sandra Felton

Founder, Messies Anonymous

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