The wilderness is wild and full of weeds, yet if you drive down a Mississippi byway on an October afternoon, you’ll see gaggles of Black-eyed Susans and goldenrod arranged just so.

The flowers of the fields may be called weeds, but their beauty shines bright when they are together. They look like stragglers when they make individual appearances in yards and near mailboxes.

So the fate of these yard weeds is usually pulled up by the roots. It feels good to throw these weeds away when they invade your turf.

My weeds were making their singular appearance in the form of frustrated thoughts and toys strewn all over.

So today, I did some weeding in my wilderness.

The maternity weeds (clothes) hit the road. The tiny plastic army of weeds in the form of Kung Fu pandas, ponies, spheres and doll house wall art marched right into the bag of no return. The papers weeds in the form of junk mail, kid scribbles (how many of you have a notebook without one single blank page?) and old mail.

It just felt good to toss, weed and cultivate an organized space.

But the weeding of stuff did something better for my soul. It gave me peace. It gave me a sense of order before our dear friends arrived for the weekend.

Putting all the toys where the belonged and plucking the weeds of stuff out of their homes made my home feel welcoming and peaceful.

The wilderness wasn’t quite so wild. It was the wilderness you crave to be part of when you view a postcard or a painting.

The wilderness of your home doesn’t have to be a wasteland strewn with forgotten papers and plastic figurines. It can be a place of wild laughter and wild game served up on a table full of company.

It just requires a little weeding and Daddy taking the man cub to the grocery store.