Yesterday me and T were working the garden again and pulling out some weeds. The most important thing I’ve ever learned about weeds is that they don’t exist. There’s no such thing. A weed is not a classification of plant. It’s simply a term we use for any plant that doesn’t look the way we want it to look growing in a spot we don’t want it to grow. The wild flowers and grasses which cover meadows and prairies and rolling hills only become weeds when they show up in our yards uninvited. Which means weeds only grow in the soil of our own stories.There’s a second thing I’ve learned about weeds. Weeds are simply better at what they do than other plants. They grow in our garden far better than the plants we want. Gardeners pour tremendous time and attention coaxing the plants they love to grow. We give them just the right soil, sun, shade, and water. Weeds get no such consideration. They are not doted upon. They don’t receive our affection but rather our hostility. Nevertheless, they grow. You may not love them, but you have to respect their skill and tenacity. And because they are so good at doing what they do I think there is something we can learn from a weed, a simple wisdom:We don’t give up on the things we were meant to do because they don’t give up on us. The roots of passion run deep. Weed deep. Passion doesn’t ask permission. It just keeps coming back.Everyone is good at something. Everyone has something in them that so aligns with the soil of their inner nature that it needs little to no encouragement to grow. Perhaps your culture or your family or your religion or politics or just your own inner stories have told you that your passions are not right, or best, or worthy of the garden of your life. And perhaps, like so many of us, you’ve spent too much time and energy trying to rid yourself of them. You succeed, for a time, at clearing the garden but they just keep popping up. That’s how passions behave. Passions are like weeds. They don’t behave.But please remember, a weed isn’t a weed unless you call it a weed. You can either spend the rest of your life trying to cultivate what you think you should be growing, or you can take notice of what already wants to grow. It’s for you to decide. But I’ll tell you this, if that so-called weed is rooted in true passion then no matter what happens on the surface of your garden, the deep roots of that passion will not allow it to die. It will keep bringing it back again, again, and again, fighting for its’ place.I’m not suggesting that you lose control of the garden of your life or give in to every whim of passion or indulge every passing desire. I’m only here to remind you that weeds don’t really exist. They are labels we make up in our own heads. And if you are struggling with finding joy or a sense of fulfillment then perhaps, just perhaps, you’ve mislabeled some of the plants in your garden. Maybe those things that keep coming back uninvited aren’t weeds. Maybe they are you. And maybe, if you discover why it is they grow so well, you’ll stop fighting them and instead use their passion to get busy building yourself a beautiful life.