Achieving A Goal

When I bought my house many years ago, it had a very large elm tree in the front yard. As the tree aged, it began to shed branches during storms. Eventually, it became such a hazard, I had to have it taken down.

While the tree guys were doing their thing, they asked about the stump. They suggested a couple of people who could grind the stump to below ground level. Then, I could plant grass over it and no one would ever know a tree had ever been there. 

I never called those guys because I had another idea.

Fast forward six years and I still had that stump in my front yard. It was starting to rot. There were bugs living in it. I was ready to make my move.

I called my best friend over to help remove the stump. We figured we could dig this old, rotten stump out of the yard in a few hours.

Wrong. 

Our expectations were way out of line.

We made almost no progress that first day. And after that first day, I was pretty much on my own. I made very little progress in the first week. In fact, I didn’t make a whole lot of progress in the first month. My son started helping me and quickly became as frustrated as I was.

As it turns out, stumps are stubborn things. 

My stump resisted all forms of technology we brought to bear on it. Chainsaws were useless and wedges were lost in the heart of the stump never to be seen again. The only tools that proved effective were an ax and a shovel.

This was manual labor at its ultimate. It was back-breaking work. 

Nearly every day after work and all day on the weekends, My son and I were out there digging and hacking away at it.  

We must have been the talk of the neighborhood. My neighbors asked about grinding it down.

“I’ve got a guy who’ll do it for a hundred bucks,” one neighbor told me. 

I told him I had another idea. 

People walking their dogs or just strolling by all asked why I didn’t just grind it down, cover it with dirt and be done with it. They commented about how much work we were doing, how hard it was. 

“Isn’t there an easier way?” one nice lady asked.

I told her I had a plan.

Truth be told, it wasn’t a plan as much as a goal. I had a goal, a vision, and I would not be deterred.

It took six long weeks to dig out that stump. 

It took all my strength to drag it out of the enormous hole I had dug around it. We actually broke a wheel barrow moving it to the dumping area I have near the back of the house.

Finally done.

Now, I can finish my plan and attain my vision. 

You see, whoever planned out my street and built the houses, over a hundred and twenty years ago, planted scores of elm trees. In fact, my street is sort of named for those trees. Sadly, most of them are gone. There are stumps in front of many of the houses giving mute evidence to what was once a beautiful tree-lined street.

I’m going to start to change that. 

I’m going to plant an elm tree. 

I couldn’t take the easy way out and grind the stump, I needed the stump out of there so my new tree could grow and thrive without interference.

In the end, it will be worth it. 

I’ll have a beautiful, shady tree in my front yard again. And that tree will still be here, in front of my house, in another hundred and twenty years.