A War on Weeds

There is a particular weed that goes in my area and as a keiki growing upon Hawaii, we all called ‘sleeping grass’ because of the fact that when you brush up against the frilly leaves, they accordion up, shrinking back like a shy violet. It is called Mimosa pudica, which in Greek translates to ‘bashful’. In Hawaiian it is called pua hilahila, which translates to 'shy,' ‘ashamed,’ or ‘bashful’.
To me it is a nuisance because I love to walk barefoot and it has pokey prickles. I try
to pull them out as I see them pop up, but with all that has happened this year, added to the growth from last year as well, made this an awful area of neglect. I am trying to pull a good amount of these weeds every day. I will have to keep you posted on the exact number I pull. The last area that had about 12 of these prickly, pokey, strangling, thick rooted weeds, took me over an hour to pull. Five days later, little sprouts have popped up again.
Pua hilahila, has long tendril like vines that travel above ground sending small shoots into the ground. But do not be deceived by the name, for it is not really bashful. It is a method of deception. It senses an enemy and once the leaves fold inward, the weed becomes difficult to discern from other growth around it. Thick, leather gloves are a must when working with these because of those thorny prickles.. Their trailing tendrils are easy to pull, and you briefly think, ah, victory! But it is not to be, because once you have the full radius of vines in your very full hand, you see they all lead to the mother tap root that is thick and deep. Even throwing my whole weight into it, pulling back as hard as I can will not pull it out. This comes from experience as I have snapped many. Hilahila also seems to ‘tense up’ the moment you begin to pull it, like it is communicating with the entire root system to HOLD. They have an intense network of roots that spread wide underground. Strong roots.

I have researched this weed to find out more about it, and while it is invasive and annoying, it also has some medicinal and beneficial properties. This should not surprise me. I have been learning a lot about different weeds that while not what I exactly wanted to grow in my space, are really good and useful as well. Being outside and working with plants makes me contemplative and I have full conversations going on in my head (although, I am sure some of it is spoken aloud at times, and I may sound
quite mad as I wage a sort of mini ‘battle of the elements’ in my own little garden world).
There are a lot of insidious weeds that can take hold in our lives, even outside of the garden. Fear, anger, wrath, hate, violence and countless injustices. It makes me think a lot about what is going on in the world and how God reveals through nature so much truth, as in parable form. It seems apparent, I hope to all, that an insidious network of things that have been setting themselves up for ages; people positioning themselves, systems, institutions, ways and means of getting by in this world. Weeds that need eradication. Will this election pull those weeds? Will the network of roots firmly make their hold? Can we discover, as a nation, the beneficial properties of something that we may consider annoying, a nuisance, or even evil? Can we learn to live with the weeds in our lives? There is so much going on in the world and it tries every day to encroach more and more into my time and space. I have to choose what to focus on, to hold
every thought captive and not get caught up in vain imaginings.
I have never been a political person. I do not enjoy that messy, tricky sphere, and for the last thirty years I have aligned myself with my husband’s choices. These last two elections I have not had my husband to help me decide on who to vote for. He LOVED elections and so did his dad. I now have to do my own research on the candidates and make my own choices, based on my own findings. This can make me feel overwhelmed, lonely and sad. It can also make me feel excited, strong and capable. It is my choice.
Maybe things are more obvious to you, I don’t know. I am only seeing things through my eyes and a very few others, trying to filter out the frequencies of confusion and doubt. I am just one person, with simple ideas and thoughts, living on the side of a mountain in the most isolated land mass in the world. I must be sure of what I know, and one thing I do know for sure is that every single person deserves a chance. No matter who gets elected, I am going to hope for the very best for these people and pray that they will try their very best to do the greatest good for the people who they serve. Freedom should be our agenda, not fear of the future. Freedom begins in my own heart and mind—free to look at the weeds in my garden and life as either harmful or beneficial, freedom to pull out the ones that no longer serve me and keep the ones that do.
I must decide to either 1) Get mad at everyone and everything that doesn’t agree exactly with me or give me exactly what I want OR 2) Make adjustments and work hard every day in my life to do good and try to find the good in others and weigh my situations carefully before deeming them as ‘bad’. I might miss the blessing.
I am focusing on what I can do. What I can do here, starting with my family and moving out from there into my dear community. My hope will always remain in Jesus Christ who is a person who exemplified the behavior that I want to emulate (although I fail every day). 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”.
I want that. To be changed from glory to glory!

Photo from Earth Medicine Institute, they have a great article on the medicinal benefits of hilahila

Also check out the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture site here for more info.
This is also an interesting article on the medicinal properties of the plant

UPDATE: I have pulled out thousands of these so far, and counting. Emma & Isaac have joined
me in the battle. We had a bonfire and torched a big pile of those suckers.