Monday, July 24, 2006

Last night my corn fell over!


Last night my corn fell over! We had a humungeous thunder/lightning storm with high winds and pounding rain. And this morning when I ventured out at 5 am... I discovered my 8 rows of corn... laying flat on the ground. So I did what any good agriculturalists would do... I played mudpie. I attempted to haul that corn back up off the mud and pack it up firm so it could stand tall again. The sag and sway, the snapped off stalks... were enough to make me cry!

Each year I call my garden my own personal sanctuary. It is my place of solitude. Of close communication with my Lord. Of hearing my own soul speak in many tones from happy to deep deep sadness. Today I saw my life like this corn patch that was beat to the ground by wind and rain. You see I have planted a lot for my family . I have seeded them with my love and nurtured them with a great deal of hard work. I haven't asked for help - I took on upholding them one by one. Yet all the toil of heart and hand I've done is of no use when an unforeseen storm comes rumbling in and flattens it all to the ground. It can be picked back up ... what hasn't been broken right off... but never again will it look the same... and perhaps no corn will grow... even though the plant remains green. I can plant and hoe and pack dirt around and water and watch, but I cannot make a single kurnel grow.

My garden is not my own creation. I miss weeds and they shoot up tall waving in arrogance taunting me to come pluck them out. I make not one flower blossom or one berry to grow. I do nothing at all to make lilies waft a gorgeous scent upon an evening breeze. I have no glory in the crowns of broccoli that burst out from their nesting foliage. Yet I think I have done all this work... all this toil... all this growing.

I plant, water, pick... and that is it. I am not responsible for a bean being a bean or for the bucketfuls of chickweed that spread a thick carpet around tender young shoots. It all grows as it is supposed to ... because of what the seed contained.

My family is mine... and I can nurture and tend it with loving care... and still... it is not my doing what it becomes. I am only able to do that for myself. What each contains is what will be harvested. I am the servant tending this garden... I am not its Master. And I think I need a day off.

Love Lion~*NoGardenGlovesTodayPaw