Cathartic Gardening, because it works.

A friend of mine was upset. She truly is a beautiful person. Bad things keep happening to her and she was starting to feel like Job. She just didn't feel beautiful even though people told her how beautiful and amazing she is. She just couldn't see it and she didn't feel it. I explained it this way. Your life, body, mind and soul are like a garden. It is over run with negative things like weeds. The problem with weeds is that their roots run deep and they choke out all the wonderful flowers that want to grow. They steal their sunlight and water and starve them out. No one can tell what a beautiful garden you have if it is covered in weeds, not even you. Pulling the weeds is hard, they have prickles and deep roots and spread like wild fire. Negativity in your life is like this, including negative people. We can call them psychic vampires if you will or weeds or what ever you want, but if they take up all the space in your garden nothing that you want to grow will, because you won't have room. Sometimes when you are done weeding it feels like your garden is empty and barren and you almost want the weeds back just to see a bit of green and the odd blossom. That's why we have to plant good things and wait for them to grow taking care to weed out the bad so that the healthy things can grow. Good things take time to mature and blossom, weeds are unhealthy and grow like crazy. Relationships are this way too. Sometimes something grows in the garden and looks to be pretty, but it grows to fast, too soon, and takes over the garden. Weeds can be pretty sometimes too, but they still are weeds and will take over your garden and have to be removed. Healthy things take time to grow, they need care and nurturing. A garden won't take care of it's self. When you stop over running you garden with weeds, you will see how beautiful it is. The reason I can see it is because I'm a gardener too.

This isn't the first time, nor probably the last time I used this analogy. I have made room in my garden and have planted wonderful things.