Weeds or Wild Flowers
As I’m walking around the streets of London I notice the number of weeds taking over the streets; separating pavement slabs, nestled in the corners of steps and wallpapering brick walls and I find myself frustrated at the untidiness, thinking of how the streets use to be better cared for and tended to. When did things get so out of control?
But what are weeds? Weeds are just wild plants that grow where they are not wanted. They were not chosen, selected, and planted purposefully. They were not dug into the soil, in hopes of flowering or yielding a fruit. They emerge unwanted and undesired. However they grow in places where others fail to thrive. They are resilient, able to grow in inhabitable environments, bringing life amidst the static concrete.
They are an annoyance to the plans and hopes we have for our gardens, taking up resources and space for things we actually want to see grow. Or growing over cleaned streets and unrooting tarmac. They are organic creation and life.
I have spent most of my life planting things; communities, churches, a rooted life in a place, long friendships, a deepening faith, hopes for my future, and in this current season I notice that I don’t want to plant, I want to let my life falow. I want to see what wild plants might be hidden in the soil, things I might have previously thought of as weeds; questions that challenge, doubts that unsettle, hidden desires and longings that I would normally pull out quickly to make room for what I planted. I am surprised at what is emerging, it is confronting to see if I even know what I contain. More and more I sense the invitation for the inner soil of my soul and life to be rewilded.
As I sit with my directees I hear the frustrations and sometimes fear of their weeds; awkward questions they hold that come unprompted to challenge their assumptions, doubts that are plucked out before they are allowed to take root, the disappointment that what they planted and long to see isn’t growing but something else is. These wild plants challenge the sense of control and instead invite them to the mystery of the co-creation, that we can plant things but we can not make things grow.
These wild plants give me hope, when they can physically and symbolically overcome the buildings and structures of my life and society, that in all we plant or build there is a promise of the addedness of other, that life and creation is unstoppable, uncontainable, abundant and wild.
In lockdown a campaign “More Than Weeds” was started by Sophie Leguil to champion urban wild plants, she chalks the pavements naming these plants that we could so easily ignore. She notices them, and turns her attention to them and names them. This is the work of Spiritual Direction, maybe not all plants should stay but they could be noticed, paid attention to and named. To allow people to see whether what is emerging is a weed or is perhaps a bit of wild faith. To celebrate the small and overlooked new bit of life that has survived harsh conditions and poor soil to push its way up into the sunlight.
To help our directees notice and name these wild plants we could ask:
Where do you experience the wildness of God in your life?
What has surprised you recently?
What part of yourself do you not recognise?
Where are you experiencing disappointment? Where do you see God doing something new?
How do you see the small work of God in your life?
What question do you feel scared to ask God?
What part of yourself do you feel you need to hide?T
Roanna Quirke
Roanna is part of the LCSD team, a Spiritual Director and trains Spiritual Directors.