Acceptance
When I first moved to this tiny tudor on the hill, I had visions. Of tomatoes and green beans, corn and blackberries, peaches and kiwi. I wanted to make my tiny parcel into a lush mini-farm of fruits and vegetables. I even considered giving some of the bumper crops to my local soup kitchen.
Well.
Tomatoes won't grow here. Not enough sun. Green beans and corn can't get the proper space (unless one is happy with enough plants to yield 10 beans, 2 ears of corn). My spouse didn't want any more trees on the property. And I did plant kiwi, but one of the plants died, and you need two (male and female) and I don't know which one is still thriving (kiwi are uncooperative that way... they don't wear dresses or ties so you can tell them apart).
So.
I began to learn the discipline of acceptance. As it turns out, I have a good number of wild edibles that are quite happy here. My herb garden grows in spite of me. Snap peas climb the hemlocks. Blueberries like my acidic soil. Peppers thrive in the front yard, against prevailing social convention (and I'm trying tomatoes there this year too).
Maybe this is the lesson I need in many areas of life. To put aside my visions, if only for a season...to see what wants to, will even delight to, grow.
Mint in the Rock Garden photo, by L.L. Barkat.
Green Inventions Invitation: if you write a related post and LINK back here, let me know and I'll link to yours.
Labels: contentment, garden, life management, wisdom
posted by L.L. Barkat at 12:20 PM
8 Comments:
LL -- I can relate. My yard is very shady, too. I've resorted to putting tomatoes in the front side yard in a little strip beside my neighbors house. If I don't watch out, they sprawl all over, but I share the produce, so nobody seems to mind.
Maria... another renegade vegetable planter! How nice to have company. And maybe the key is in the sharing, as you say.
This was a poignant post. I like the connection you make to real life -- what will emerge if we give it room to breathe? I also appreciate your willingness to step back and allow new things -- things you didn't plan -- to come forth.
I must say, Christianne, that after I wrote this post I thought of you. Of how you are giving up one dream for the hope of another.
Oh, wow. First, I'm humbled that you thought of me in relation to your post after you wrote it. Second, I find your comment very perceptive. Not just because you know I'm exchanging one thing for another through what I recently posted, but also because there's a whole layer of depth there of two BIG dreams He has helped me exchange for this one in the process. You couldn't have known all the backstory to which I'm alluding here (well, maybe you could know SOME of it, from stories I've shared in the past), but the layers to your comment jumped out at me just now when I read it. I think God has way more up His sleeve than we ever know . . . and it really is something He desires: for us to step back, provide breathing room, and allow those things to emerge.
OK, I'm rambling. I'm rambling a lot lately! I'll stop now. :)
Always room to ramble here... don't worry about holding your breath or anything. :)
I look forward to, one way or another (blogging or on-the-side), hearing about the Great Exchange.
Ooh, I love this post!!
I have all ideas of what I want my life to be, what it should be, a to-do list of things to accomplish. But what if I'm meant for something different? What if the soil of my soul is not conducive to my own plans or agenda?
I wonder what will happen when I let God do the planting & the growing ... Master Gardener as He is.
One never knows. I pray you find your way... whether it be peppers or tomatoes! :)
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