An Open Window

Beloved:

            Oh, what a beautiful morning!  For the first morning in ages it’s not sweaty humid outside at 7 AM.  I inspected my bean plants and pulled a few weeds.  My lone hollyhock stalk is nearly seven feet tall and loaded with flowers that look made of pink tissue paper, and Japanese beetles.  I pick and flick them into the yard for the chickens to eat.  The berry vines are loaded with them too.  Honestly, I’d gladly poison the pests if it weren’t for all the toads.  It must be all the rain, but this year my beds are positively hopping with little toad families.

            Larger pests roam outside the garden fence, gnawing what they can reach with their snouts.  I have decided to buy something the mowing man called deer sticks, two foot tall spikes stuck in the ground.  On top is a plastic box that emits a sweet corn smell.  When the deer’s nose gets close she gets a little zap, just enough to make that area unattractive thereafter.  My idea is to protect my berries and beans and compromise by letting them free-range in my front flower beds.

            Absolutely nothing slows down the summer more than gardening.  How many days since I dropped those bean seeds in?  Are they on track to blossom as the package promised?  The answer is yes, but it seems like growth should happen faster.  I am wise to the absurdity of having an opinion on how seeds ought to work.  That it happens at all is the miracle.  Light, water, dirt . . . magic – the seed becomes the food and flowers!  One tiny cucumber seed can make a thousand more at least  – abundance in my backyard for the price of a pack of seeds!

            Nothing grounds me more than digging, weeding, staking, pruning . . . even trying to outsmart the freeloading animals.  Nowhere else do I stay so in the moment.  I don’t miss my phone or fret about that list of undone duties.  It is a hobby with the benefits of spiritual practice:  contemplation before an open window onto God doing God’s business.

            I pray this beautiful day offers you some view to God doing what God does among us here and now.  We’ve so much for which to be grateful.

~ peace & prayers, 
pastor annette