Tumbleweeds for Christmas

First of all, who is thinking about Christmas in March? Second of all, what do tumbleweeds have to do with Christmas? Well, if you grew up in the Sonora desert in northern Mexico like I did, you know that tumbleweeds rule. They roll across the wide open desert and wrap themselves into big tangles whenever something stops them in their tracks. For ranchers and farmers, which most of us were, dealing with them is a constant battle. We had to haul them from ditches where they clogged the flow of limited and essential water, unwrap them from fence posts and electrical poles, pull them out of obscure corners and do it all again.

Needless to say, managing prickly tumbleweeds gets old. One year my best friend’s father decided to stop fighting and celebrate them by making a big round one into a Christmas tree. I don’t think his wife was happy with it, but as a teenager I found it fascinating. Lights strung around the dried bush made it quite beautiful (and maybe a fire hazard). With decorations hung and presents gathered it was a regular ol’ Christmas tree.

Last night, in the advanced class I lead one of the participants had a beautiful insight that something considered a weakness was actually a great asset. Inspired by this today I am experimenting with the same, how can I turn my Tumbleweeds into Christmas trees? What if I stop wrestling with myself and just dress it up to see how I look in a new light?