This is a guest post by Joanne Miller. She is my wife and affectionately known as Queen Mother in the 48Days community. She writes, serves the needs of others and spends time with her grandchildren. She doesn’t use Twitter or Facebook but has more connections than anyone I know. If you’d like to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.
If you drive through any of the Southernmost states when the landscape is lush and green you will be amazed at the carpet of kudzu. An extremely invasive plant that has been dubbed, “the vine that ate the South”, kudzu can withstand extreme conditions of soil and weather and is very stress-tolerant. Many years ago, when introduced to the United States from Asia, kudzu was often used as an attractive cover for porches, arbors and garden walls. But kudzu is extremely invasive. Little-by-little…..up to a foot a day of growth…..it can eliminate anything in it’s path. 
What’s the kudzu in your life? What one thing (or maybe more) has squeezed the life out of your dream? Have distractions covered up your passion so it is hardly any longer recognizable? What are common forms of kudzu?
The first thing that might pop into mind would be the television. What started out as an amazing form of entertainment that enabled more people to tune into the arts and hear the news, the television has become an intrusive part of American culture that sucks up more time in a day than most people care to admit. Recent Nielson statistics (March, 2015) shows that the average time spent watching television in a day is 5.11 hours…..resulting in the statistic of over nine years of TV viewing per person in the U.S. Yikes! That’s a lot of years that could have resulted in writing a book, traveling, learning a new language or myriad other possibilities.
In considering my own kudzu, the first thing that comes to mind is my intense desire to have everything around me in proper order. I want my house in order, my desk in order, my life in order and THEN I can concentrate on my writing, which is what I most want to do. I love to get deep into writing mode. It is like the icing on the cake for me. However, I can spend so much time “perfecting the cake” that I never get to the icing. My house, my desk, my life…..are never as orderly as I would like. So, for me, the kudzu is my obsession to orderliness.
Facebook, for many, has become competitive with the television in sucking up hours in the day. Our fascination with virtual connection has taken us down a road of communication that has little to do with real relationship. Our cell phones, iPads, lap tops and even our Apple watches have become so much a part of our daily lives that we have forgotten how to carry on a conversation looking eye-to-eye and listening intently.
Another common form of kudzu can be in taking care of others. If you have a servant’s heart or a tendency to be a people-pleaser, you may be addicted to volunteering to do everything that comes along the pike. The “no” word rarely escapes your lips so you are continually on call for anyone who needs help, needs attention, needs nurturing. Ok, admittedly that is another issue for me.
Kudzu is hard to control and permeates it’s surroundings like a virus. It often kills the object it overtakes. Isn’t that much like the distractions in our lives? How often have you had a dream or a goal that got swept under layers of kudzu and, over time, strangled out your passion?
Recognizing you have kudzu invading your life is the first step to eradicating the problem. What could you do to eliminate the smothering, tenacious, and potentially deadly kudzu in your life and allow your dream to breathe again? Perhaps it’s time to pull that strangling distraction up by the roots and face it head on!
So what is the kudzu that you’ve found creeping into your life?
Joanne, GREAT post, especially as our society is so much faster paced than it used to be. I recently watched a video about a man who was released after being wrongly imprisioned 39 years ago (video is here if you want to watch: http://blogs.channel4.com/kylie-morris-blog/man-proved-innocent-39-years-prison/1107). While there were many obvious takeaways from this video, the piece where the man shared about how much faster life was today than it was when he first went to prison in the mid 1970’s and how people don’t communicate face to face as they used to. It was interesting to hear his perspective on several accounts (loved his gratitude attitude), but the piece around all the clutter getting in our way today was one that was a powerful reminder that the clutter can sometimes get in the way to the things that mean the most.
Thank you for posting!!!!
Jen, I will definitely listen to this video. Thanks for sharing it. Yes, we often get so mired in clutter that we don’t even realize it till something disastrous happens. Then we wonder what the heck happened! I got news yesterday that a dear friend had died the night before and it was someone I was “planning to see” when my calendar permitted. Now it is too late. Made me think a lot on this topic. Thanks for the great input. jfm
Joanne, great post indeed:). I have a lot of interests and I don’t always think of them as “kudzu,” but being from the south I can relate to the invasive nature of that plant. I am working on being more focused because my foundation was overlaid with the kudzu of life. I want to remember this.
Charlotte, Thanks for your affirmation. The more I think of the word KUDZU the more I see how intrusive it has become in my life. Hope this word is a buzz word for you too….
This is such an insightful post, Joanne. Thank you for sharing! I agree with you about Facebook replacing modern television as a form of kudzu as well. I have found that simply being bombarded with so much “good information” to read and listen to can be another form. I have decided to focus my “core” of positive materials, books and podcasts to certain proven coaches and methods. There are simply too many great books to read, podcasts to listen to, and events to attend than I have in my lifetime to consume. Intentionally deciding what good stuff we’ll let in can ease the overflow. My remedy for kudzu: We can’t listen to everyone. We can’t read everything. Choose the one’s whose insights give you the greatest results and focus on building something significant.
Oh, Jevonnah….a very good insight. I totally agree. There is sooo much out there. We have to be intentional about choosing what we can and cannot do. I wrote a story once about how difficult it is to make a choice sometimes because of all we have from which to choose. I related it to going down the cereal aisle in the grocery store. WHEN did we need to have a hundred different varieties of breakfast cereal? And WHY!? I love your input. Thanks for sharing! Be intentional is a good model. jfm
Recently, I saw five members of a family at a restaurant, all staring at their cell phones and not talking to each other, feverishly thumbing away on messages to people who some where else. The funny thing is, you know if they were with those other people they would still be busy banging away at their keypads sending messages to different people who would also be somewhere else. Even though it’s pervasive now, that’s just not normal behavior. Great post Joanne. I love the kudzu analogy.
Clark, You are so right. I am noticing this phenomenon more and more lately. I carry a deck of cards in my purse and while Dan and I wait at a restaurant, airport, etc, we play a game of cards instead. Keeps our noses out of our phones and we have lots more conversation…and laughs…..this way. Can’t help but wonder if a generation or so down the road, anyone will remember how to actually TALK to one another….IN PERSON! Thanks for a great illustration. jfm
This is an awesome and thought-provoking article! I’ve been working to get the “kudzu” out of my life and love this way of looking at the issue. THANK YOU for sharing!