Weeding in Winter

It’s December and I had to weed my yard today. What’s up with that? Of course part of it is my fault, the fact that I have waited two months to do that last bit of yard work before winter, might have a small part to play. However, no one in Utah Valley should have to weed in December, because our yards should be three feet deep with snow.

It has been one of the warmest winter/fall seasons ever. My roses kept blooming all through November, and until this last weekend when we finally got some snow I was wondering if we would get any snow at all for Christmas. My grandfather told me that when he was younger, on the week of Thanksgiving, he and his brothers would always go ice skating on Utah lake. I remembered this as I was out doing grocery shopping the Monday before Thanksgiving. It was 70 degrees outside and I thought, “Well, we could go swimming at Utah Lake if nothing else.”

Which brings me to another thought I often think about. Global warming. Is this warm winter an effect of G.W., if it is, is there really stuff in our power that we can do? Is it really as bad as everyone says? I think the problem for me with G.W. is it just seems so big that I don’t really feel there is much I can do. Sure, I can recycle, turn lights off, drive as little as possible. And I’m a firm believer in doing what we can. But will those small things make a difference? I know it’s by small and simple things that great things come to past. I see this all the time, but it’s still hard to remember, to really feel that the small things I do can have an impact on a global scale, both negative and positive. I feel that way with elections. What I say—what I want, doesn’t really matter. And yet, even though I feel that way I don’t really believe it. It’s strange how so often our logical and our emotional sides can contradict. What we know, and what we feel can be so different. I know I can make a difference, I know I can get what I want by doing small and simple things so even though I feel insignificant, that what I am doing won’t make a difference, I know it can, and that is why I keep doing it.

Just like me weeds. They are so small, encroaching across my flowers like innocent foliage. But if I don’t do something simple, like pull them out now, they will overcome the yard. So first I will overcome them!