It has been thirty-three years since my husband and I bought our home in Brewster. It was love at first sight: the house, the property, the road, and the stream down in back. The landscaping was lovely. On one side, we enjoyed a privacy barrier with our neighbor, with wild roses, Tiger Lilies, Burning Bush, Ironwood trees and other regional flora. From the back we loved sitting on our porch watching the stream.

Years passed, and unsurprisingly, small changes were not perceived. Our eyes have a habit of seeing what they expect to see, not what is actually in front of them. One June, I noticed that the Tiger Lilies and small white roses weren’t blooming on our property line anymore. Last year, I considered how the growing trees leading down to the stream had completely blocked the view from our porch. While I was preoccupied, nature had relandscaped my property.

This spring, Matt Henry came in with his tree-felling team and dropped several trees between my house and the water. This summer after many years, I was able to again sit peacefully, watching the deer cross and drink. Breathe deeply the unobstructed air. Then this fall, a young man who is a childhood friend of my son, stopped by and offered to help trim my bushes. He had received his degree in Environmental Science. So, after touring my perimeter and really looking at the vegetation currently growing there, I saw the ugly web of invasive vines and plants that had been slowly choking out the indigenous treasures.

For the last few weeks, at night after work, Paul has been stopping by to trim, prune, and transplant the native gems; then hack, wrangle, and haul away the invaders. This reminds me of our bad habits and sins. We can become so preoccupied with our day-to-day that we don’t perceive the subtle parasites that impact our behaviors. Then by the time we notice, they are rooted so deeply and wound so tightly around our good parts, that the idea of pruning ourselves can be overwhelming – and more than we can do alone. It took a couple weeks to see a change in my yard; it may take longer for our own conversion, but once the transformation begins, we reclaim the gift of breathing fresh air and seeing the revealing light that we didn’t even know we had lost.

Scripture: Read John 15:1-2 What stands out?

Call to Action: Pray and ask God to begin revealing your invasive habits and sins, share them with Father in the Confessional, then breathe deeply of God’s forgiveness.