Weeds? Or Wildflowers?

My sister gave me a cute garden sign for Christmas:

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Well, uh, all weeds are wildflowers, already. That is, they are flowers in the wild, growing outside the garden. When they jump into the garden and settle in, then we call them "weeds." A weed is simply a plant or flower growing where we don't want it.

I consider violets to be weeds, but, if you don't live in New England, you might adore having some violets in your garden.

In fact, most of my "weeds" are wildflowers. I have some beautiful white mullein that pops up everywhere. You are familiar with the yellow variety that grows along roadsides.

This cute little sign is guiding us toward equanimity. When we can simply let the unpleasant (e.g., weeds) arise and pass, we don't get bent out of shape. And we don't bend over and pull a weed, er, wildflower, i mean.