What Sticks Stand in Your Way?

It’s spring: Time for the annual Stick-Picking-Upping.

Winter is hard on those trees. 

(Actually, it’s hard on all of us.)

But darn it, it seems to be best not to have giant twigs all over the lawn when one wants to mow it. And this task is particularly important because of our auto mower, Lawn Solo.  

Yes, Lawn Solo does mow the lawn—by himself. 

He’s like a robot vacuum cleaner, but for the lawn. And there are a few things in the way of his path right now. 

And those sticks dull his blades. 

Do you ever feel that way? Like there are sticks…or boughs…or even entire trees strewn across the path you are trying to go?

And those darn things are in your way of progress? 

I was laughing as I was picking up sticks this time around, noting that there is no easy way to do this. My chiropractor would tell me not to bend over because that’s not good for the back, but my orthopedic would tell me not to go into deep knee bends to reach them because that’s bad for my right-knee-patellar tendonitis. 

So, then I thought, “Sit down!” 

And I sat on the grass and picked them up that way. But then I remembered the ticks are out in full force, so that’s a bad idea too.

Sometimes, I also don’t want to pick up sticks.

This is what life is like, isn’t it?

There are scattered barriers and twigs and bits of life that we have to pick up to clear our way. We all have cleaning up to do to help the grass to grow greener and our trees to grow stronger.

We don’t like it.

It sometimes hurts to do it.

But we have to do it!

It’s good for us! 

It’s good for the grass, it’s good for the planet, and it’s good for our psyche.  

I've been practicing lately trying to catch myself when I’m throwing twigs in my own path. For example, when I procrastinate and make my own life harder. Or when I focus on dwelling on things that make me sad. Or when I’m being selfish, or snarky, or irritable. 

I might drop a little zinger at my partner when I get mad at something he did. But then I realize that was my own stick I just threw on the ground. 

And those sticks can pile up. 

We can trip over them.

What sticks do you need to clean up after you? Where might you be strewing twigs here and there at your own feet?

As you know, this chore is a regular one because the seasons always bring something new. Ice, snow, wind, and cold makes any mighty tree giant drop its small, weaker branches. Often they are dead branches—and they must go.

This is how new ones find the room to sprout. 

This is how we create space for new growth.

Remember the game version of Pik-Up Stix you may have played as a kid? You’d pop the plastic end off that tube of colored sticks and empty the sticks out on a table. And then, you would try to remove one by one without any other sticks shifting.

Think of this as a game. 

Sometimes, it’s helpful to be delicate about this game. But other times, it helps to take a giant garbage can and go crazy after it for a few days.

Peter Walsh, a professional organizer and writer, says “Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor—it’s anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living.”  

What sticks stand between you and the life you want to be living?

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