Mulberry Bushes

This weekend we did some "spring cleaning" around our yard. You know, some of the basics - raking the leftover leaves, picking up sticks, getting frustrated by the acorn shell remnants from winter. And through this spring cleaning we discovered something in our backyard...

We have the beginnings of mulberry bushes growing up around our big evergreen trees, some even growing underneath the branches. I've never thought as mulberry bushes as a threat - they were always the bushes from the cute song my grandma taught me as a child. It's sometimes those things that don't appear to be threats that cause the most damage... Apparently mulberry plants can overtake everything nearby and choke out other plants and trees. They start off small and innocent looking, but in actually are very hard to get rid of.

It got me thinking - how many things in our lives do we let go because they seem small and innocent enough - not really expecting them to cause any real damage? And if we choose to ignore something that is small and only mildly dangerous, eventually it becomes large, out of control, extremely dangerous and incredibly hard to get rid of. It kind of reminds me of the small blood thirsty plant from the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors. It started off small and easy enough to please, and eventually became a man eating plant that controlled its owner, instead of the other way around.

There are specific times in my life I can look back to, and see those little things planting seeds around me - and I let them. I thought I could control them - they were small, why wouldn't I be able to? But it never works that way. They all ended up as mulberry bushes and man eating plants.

My spring cleaning served more than just a aesthetic purpose, it served as a reminder that sometimes you just need to be a little more careful what you let into your life. Otherwise, you may have a really hard time getting rid of it later.