Community Living and the Garden
By Sr. Elaine Davia, CBS
It’s amazing what a garden teaches us about community life and relationships.
Consider how each of these observations about gardening also apply to community and our relationships.
It takes preparation and careful tending to keep a garden healthy and fruitful.
And there’s the need for creativity, to tend and care in organic ways that don’t pollute or contaminate.
The variety of colors, shapes, and sizes is what makes the garden beautiful and successful.
And the occasional rotation of the plants aids in producing healthy fruit.
A healthy garden attracts many visitors. Some of the most beautiful flowers have thorny spines.
And some visitors have a real sting (e.g., bees), but they are essential for the pollination and growth of vegetables and fruit.
Some visitors are quiet and inconspicuous, but necessary for healthy soil (e.g., worms).
And some of the regulars appear to do nothing but add beauty.
Some visitors wait until just the right moment, then ruin the veggies (e.g., stink bugs).
And then there are the rare, special visitors (e.g., praying mantis) that bring surprise and joy to the moment.
Sometimes, it’s hard to tell what is a weed and what is a wildflower.
And so, like scripture says, we must let them grow together until we know for sure.
The garden can look pretty from a distance, while up close the jungle of weeds seems overwhelming — that’s the day-to-day reality of a garden;
And so, we need to keep a sense of humor and the bigger perspective in view.
The weeding of ordinary everyday gardening includes pulling weeds which then come right back again and again;
And so, sometimes we need outside help to deal with too many and too deep weeds.
There’s the patience needed, the waiting…and waiting…for the first fruits!
And there’s joy of anticipation and expectation in the waiting.
There is a mindfulness needed in the garden to not get stung, bitten, or pricked.
And so, it’s helpful to be totally present to the part of the garden we are working on.
Finally, the successful surprises — the first sight of a tomato or a strawberry or flower!
And then we know everything that went before was preparation for this moment and was well worth it.
There are wonderful surprises and life-informing challenges growing a garden,
And I feel these learnings replicated in my life in community and relationships.
And so we pray:
Creator God, thanks all the beauty around us. Thanks for the gift of participating in the ongoing creation of our world, and most of all thanks for the relationships that give our lives meaning and deep joy. We pray to the Spirit to gift us with the patience and appreciation of our differences that make the world more beautiful and livelier. We ask all this with a humble stance. Amen