Yes, it is “mulch,” not “March Madness.”
            If you are like me, spring issues its annual siren call to return to terra firma and tend to the riot of green that is out of control around your home.
            With an electric hedge trimmer (Edward Scissorhand move over), wheelbarrow, steel rake, assorted shovels, potting soil and copious amounts of euphoria I venture back into the wild to tame out-of-control spring.
            And, I will make arrangements for a huge pile of cedar mulch to be delivered by my friendly lawn and garden mega store.  Here is the finishing touch to my next try at Eden.
            The problem with my madness about mulch is it looks good for about the first three weeks of May and by July it will be overgrown by what I knew was lurking just beneath the surface:  weeds.
            After a lifetime of regret that I did not take the time to remove the old mulch and put down some serious weed-blocking material, it is just madness to believe this cedar-laced dressing for my home will still look pristine in September!
            It is just faster, easier and less labor-intensive on a beautiful April afternoon to  “get it done” by pouring one wheelbarrow load after another on top of the procreating greedy green monsters that are planning their annual coming-out party.
            Sound familiar?  Now, move past this front lawn analogy to your toxic working relationships, poorly defined professional goals and non-existent legacy issues.  Do you “mulch” (cover up) what will doom your best intentions because you chose not take time to do it “right” the first time?
            Work with me here. 
            Do you dump truck loads of mulch (“Hey, just keep your mouth shut and slather on that smile because time heals all wounds.”) when you heard, via your grapevine, a coworker told your boss your negative attitude is what keeps your work team from making their numbers?
            You knew this person was auditioning for the Judas role in your life, but you did not choose to put in the time to dig down and pull out the root cause of his/her antipathy for you.  It was just “too much work.” So why are you dumbfounded when this coworker openly lances your character behind your back?
            Or, do you grab the 40 pound bag of mulch and empty its contents all over a career which you know is going nowhere? 
            You acknowledge to yourself, almost every day, this job is not worthy of you.  You have spent innumerable years of your life fantasizing about the moment when the people in your workplace, home, place of worship, professional association all are struck with a lighting bolt of enlightenment that you are, indeed, “divine.”
            The hard work would have been to write a set of goals for your life and career and regularly readjust how you are living and working in order to live in your dreams.

            Finally, do you “mulch” your legacy?  You know, we all want to leave some residue about who we were and the contribution we made to an organization or the lives of people closest to us.
Has it been consistently “easy” to mulch over our weakness with well-designed excuses about our family-of-origin, our DNA, the “breaks” we did not get, the inept third grade teacher, the loud neighbors next door and host of other bad hands that have been dealt to us?
Somewhere and at some time we have to dig down to the terra firma of our personhood and rip out the whining weeds.  Life is not clean, predictable or even fair, but it is life and it is our garden.
I have learned the path of least resistance in the spring is just dump the mulch.  I feel so good for a few weeks until the invasion begins.  I had another choice.  I could have done it the right way. 

We still have time to dig up the subterranean soil of our lives and put down a permanent weed-blocker.