Sanity 4 - Back to the garden

Simply Living

Growing up, we had farm animals as well as a few acres of garden.  We also had a great amount of wilderness to escape to, hunt in, and build tree houses in. With the fad culture of organic and raw living found in nearly every grocery store around me, I'm reminded the real work that is involved - not just checking the fruits and vegetables on the shelf for an "Organic" label. I don't think I need to detail what I needed to do if I wanted chicken for dinner.

Escaping the hardness of true country-life (not the thing that mainstream redneck culture it has become) I found shopping an enjoyable experience.  However, the desire to have my own little garden in my 1/16th of an acre parcel became my refuge 2 years ago. The smell of the fertilized dirt over the asphalt and tar, began to revitalize me and nourish me more than any vitamin or supplement ever could.

Pruning the unknown

With a much different climate and lack of ability to plant a "real" garden on the grounds of my rental property, I've had to plant sparingly and with plants that I was not accustomed to caring for.  Growing up, if you spit out a seed to the ground, shortly a plant would spring and in a few months, a nice juicy watermelon would provide seed for the next season.  Here, you spit out a seed, and an ant hill forms around it and the bugs come smashing your door demanding more.

So, I've had to work a bit harder to keep my plants protected from the local wildlife, the intense rains and sun, as well as my intense schedule. Finding the balance of the right fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers was a joyous adventure, however, the picking of the abundant crops and pruning of the plants that I was not familiar with (especially flowers) is something that I am still learning.

Over the past few days, trying to distract myself from my sorrows, I've gotten some perennial flowers to replace the annuals that I had mistakenly purchased. Upgrading some of my other plants to larger pots as well, I've learned to cut the roots to inspire better growth.  For some of the herbs and old flowers, I clipped and pruned to exhaustion until I finally gave up and left them with nothing but a stump.

New Life 

Of course, this is not really an article about gardening, but of growth.  The practice of caring for my plants made me realize what this second time in Celebrate Recovery is all about - a time for a second chance and a new life.  Although I transplanted and trimmed to a stump many of the flowers and herbs just yesterday, new leaves and flowers have already grown! 

Paul tells us that "When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!" The cutting of the roots, and the dead stalks and limbs from the plants that were once vibrant and full of life is much like how I realize that I need to be willing to have God prune my "roots" - or old habits of thought; my useless "limbs" - or ways I would reach out; and dead "flowers" - or those things that I had pride in.

Perhaps I got so focussed on the ways of self-denial, casting crowns, and being well-rooted that I took that to an extreme and never flourished as God had intended. Perhaps I followed a line of Christianity that was not Christian at all! Perhaps I let God take all of me - all of my crap, but never received His nurturing and blessing to the extent that He desires. Perhaps I just need to look at the simplicity of His Love more intensely.