Kudzu, An Apt Metaphor

Cooler temperatures and gray clouds pushed through recent pleasant sunny temperatures – in fact, we plunged thirty degrees from the high 80’s to 52 degrees. It feels more like fall. And fall is my favorite season – and October, a favorite month.  Memories of summer’s heat have softened, colors have ripened, and I don’t need a sweater just yet.  Carol Bishop Hipps, a writer and gardener called October bittersweet, describing it as “. . .  The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.”

Bittersweet has been my word of choice this month.  We have spent the past few weeks unpacking all the boxes that we packed up before leaving Maryland -- when we emptied our storage locker.  Some of what I have unpacked, surprised me – like reconnecting with an old friend; other items flabbergasted me because I thought we disposed of them already in the yard sale from hell.  

I sort into three piles – toss, keep, or recycle.  It’s good – sweet -- to get organized, rediscovering tidbits and treasures, like the certified copy of our marriage license. (July 29, 1972) It’s a wee bit sad though, here’s the bitter bit, to be reacquainted with items only to bid them farewell. The advantage is out of sight out of mind! The annoyance is managing more the stuff! (Stuff – October 2009)

Being a steward of anything isn’t easy; being a good steward of even a little is hard. Being reminded I should have done this six years ago is irritating. It’s a blessing having things – it’s a reproof to see how poorly I’ve managed them.

Another part of the bittersweetness of these past few weeks is seeing how “things” can become more out of control than a half acre of kudzu! Now kudzu can be a good thing, if contained – but it got out of hand in the south, spreading at about 150,000 acres annually! Sometimes, I have nightmares about shipping boxes of my stuff  -- stuff I’ve forgotten about -- and I can’t unpack and sort it fast enough!

The important stuff of life is people -- at all ages and stages, with all their wonderful, exasperating, inscrutable quirks and quandaries. And most of that I am unpacking shows me how many great people to whom God has linked me! Whether I keep something, toss, or recycle it, it’s hard to let go of these reminders.     

All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbours. John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion


*Photo from Wikipedia article on the ubiquitous kudzu