Plant a Little Something

Such terrible things going on these days. Earthquakes, riots, illness, and on it goes. I know all of creation groans under the curse of sin, and sometimes I know we feel that groan in our spirits, too. I’m thankful I got to garden yesterday, to think about lovely things in front of me.

A friend brought me a couple of loads of soil with his truck. What a blessing! I enjoyed all of it…the blisters from shoveling it all out, the sore muscles from wheelbarrowing, the dirt under my fingernails. I freshened up the walkways with rock and/or timber, put down cardboard on areas with heavy buttercup invasions, and smoothed out rich black soil and compost. The smell was intoxicating.

I planted oregano, thyme, rosemary. Winter and summer savory. Dill, catnip, strawberries, and chocolate mint. And lots more herbs and flowers: calendula, cosmos, poppies, columbine, borage, hollyhocks, sunflowers, anise hyssop, echinacea, brown-eyed susans, zinnia, chamomile, basil, nasturtium, love-in-a-mist, sweet rocket and bachelor’s buttons. Parsley, lovage, tarragon and violets, too. I had several starts, but most of it was from seed.

None of this is going to feed my family a meal. For that, I am tremendously grateful for the milk delivery across the street and the CSA delivery to my front door and the cow that is growing down the highway a few miles. What provision! My husband is not interested in gardening on a large-scale at all, so right now, this is the space I’ve been given. I’m going to use it: lots of herbs for the meals and medicines I do make, and lots of flowers for the soul. Because when the world feels especially rotten, a little bouquet of flowers on the table or swaying in the walkways does my heart good. Plus I can nibble a piece of lemon balm while watching the children outside.

Maybe some grief could be assuaged if everyone had a little soil to plant something into, even if it is just a small pot on the patio for a little parsley or peppermint. If nothing else, it could be fodder to contemplate the miraculous work God is able to do under the soil to grow the little seed. Then maybe we would think more about God, about His obvious handiwork in creation, about the privilege we have of knowing Him through Christ. I dunno. Maybe. A little extra dirt wouldn’t hurt, though, would it? I was glad to be plied from the continuing downsizing and the screens that continually beckon. The fresh air and sunshine did me good. Have you planted anything lately?