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Tuesday, May 05, 2009

"The Chocolate"

Back in the day when I was a dietetic intern, we had a young, let's call her a know-it-all supervisor who was not very well liked. And she was always watching her weight. One intern discovered that this supervisor had a passion for chocolate. So, each day, the intern would anonymously leave a "gift" of chocolate candy, or freshly baked cake, or a brownie on her desk. The supervisor seemed very happy for this gift. All year the interns were watching to see if she would put on more weight eating all this chocolate.

Something similar to this happened to me. One lady gave me a "gift" of a clump of lily of the valley. "Just put it anywhere in your garden. It will grow well in the shade." Well, not only does it grow well in the shade, it grows in the sun and even under that black fabric mat I put down to smother the weeds. It even seems to thrive there! And spread, and spread... It's taking over my garden! For the past few days I've been digging it out. It has a root system that really knows how to travel.

During one moment of weakness I leaned on my shovel and considered, "this may be good ground cover under the shrubs." Perish the thought! Lily of the valley is NOT in the plan. Back to digging out the gift that keeps on giving. I do think I will be battling lily of the valley for all my gardening days.

So this morning I thought about that gift of chocolate. There's a lesson in here somewhere. When I figure it out, I'll let you know.

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