
My sister and I have a rather awful habit. We pluck the gray hairs right out of our heads. And what's more, sometimes we pluck each other's! There's nothing like having a sister who can rush in at the dark hour of desperate need and pull out a row of gray hair that you
know is right there on the back of your head but you just can't reach! Ah, sweet sisterhood.
I know what you're thinking: if you pluck it, don't ten more grow in it's place? I haven't really found this to be true. All I know is that I'm not walking around with a giant gray hair sticking up out of my head like an antennae, which is what the situation was the first time I decided to pluck back when I was a young and tender 30 year old. Sure, there are a
few more now, but it has been
six years. And it surely beats putting bad poisonous chemicals in your hair. I had enough of that in my 20s with the green and purple hairdos I concocted.
The thing about pulling out a bunch of gray hairs is that it feels so
satisfying. Seeing a gray patch, panicking, and then one by one plucking each silver strand out with a little
pop is so fulfilling. Even better--knowing I got the whole strand and that it didn't break off in the middle! Sweet success!
My husband rolls his eyes when he sees me zeroing in on a questionable hair in front of the mirror. He claims I'll be bald in another year. But maybe not.......
For folks, I am here to report that there is yet another activity I now routinely engage in that is just
as satisfying as plucking gray hairs. Hold onto your hats, it's a good one. It is....(drumroll)....
weeding my garden!!!!! Yes, I have become a weeding addict!
Every day for what seems like ages now, I have been going outside and pulling out tiny little shoots of beachgrass growing between our fragile little carrot and beet plants. I have been pulling stray flower plants springing out from under our vining peas and beans. And most rewarding of all, so rewarding I actually dream about it more than once, I have been loosening the roots and then gently pulling out the hideous weed Mugwort along with it's white rope-like roots!
I ***heart*** pulling out Mugwort! It is soooo much better than pulling out gray hairs! To see each plant come popping out whole, with an intact root to boot, makes my heart fill with satisfaction and joy! Sometimes I cannot even listen to my dear husband wax on and on about which plants will go where because my beady eye is busy casting around, looking for just one little sprig of Mugwort that I could just ease out of the ground with my trusty little spade. Mmmm, I can feel it now! And then to look down a row of plants and see only the intended few standing uniformly in a line, free of the scraggly wannabes, bliss!
You know, sometimes I get so addicted to that satisfying feeling of plucking weeds that I have to remind myself not to get carried away and in my reverie start accidentally ripping out the intended plants too!
Well, maybe this weeding thing will be good for my head. I can give my gray hair a break for the summer and put my energies into weeding. I'll let you know in August whether I become totally gray myself from lack of plucking!