The Glory of Gardening

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.”– Alfred Austin 

“Life begins the day you start a garden.”– Chinese proverb

“When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.”– Minnie Aumonier

“Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.”Rumi.

The three weeks stay at home order in my state was a welcome relief for me, although I know with deep appreciation that others are still busy working at home, caring for others especially the sick and providing much needed services, while others have lost their job or loved ones. I hope they will all be relieved of their stress soon.       

For me I have series of projects that need some deep reflective thought and this time will allow me time to concentrate on beginning those projects.  I also look forward to the warmer weather in spring and the chance to open up my home and to work in the yard.  My evergreen bushes need trimming and within a week I will need to mow my lawn.  Of course, I love my walks around the neighborhood waving and saying hello to my neighbors. It is a chance to turn off social media and the world which can be so distracting.  I have read that pollution and carbon dioxide levels are dropping here and around the world.  It reminds me that we all reduce global warming if we plant trees and shrubs, purchase less products in plastic and paper, eliminate harmful toxins in our home and yard, compost our yard and home waste, and make fewer driving trips.  It also signals that we need new broad-based economic and progressive social thinking that is required in a digital and service/gig economy where all stakeholders are considered, not just the stockholders.  Instead of just reacting, we need to envision the world we want to live in and build the systems to achieve it.  This requires slowing down and planning.  We seem to think that economic activity is necessary to be happy and productive, when often the opposite is required.  I loved how in a visit to Europe years ago, one waiter served the entire restaurant and guests just enjoyed visiting and savoring the food. There was no rush to vacate the table for the next customer so the restaurant and waiters could make money. Although as Americans we pride ourselves on our independent culture and our economic power, we can combine the best of all worlds.

My first week’s focus is to research basic steps and products to reduce waste in our lives primarily focused on paper and plastic to share with friends and neighbors.  I also want to encourage my neighbors to plant trees and shrubs and to spend more time in their yards visiting with neighbors.  The global climate crisis stems from living in a world disconnected from nature.  The more we encourage wildlife and nature in our neighborhoods, the more we value the Earth and feel closer to God and to each other.  

This week I am also researching landscaping planning software to download to my Mac and begin to plan a bird and butterfly garden for my yard as well as other areas.  I was excited to see plant nurseries are open for business during this stay at home order. I look forward to placing an order with them.   So far since in moving in, I’ve planted three trees and ten shrubs in addition to the landscaping and tree provided by the builder. For years I have collected gardening and landscaping books and magazines.  My favorite garden magazine is English Gardens.  I know that cultivating gardens takes years of expertise and I am just beginning.    

The final project these three weeks is to begin a website on wordpress.org to move my blog Sacredsouls to and begin in earnest my goal to open minds to possibilities.  I expect this project will take the remainder of the year, but I need time to outline a plan for a book, the website, and classes.  I want us to remember that our Earth is a garden and within us the power to live in unity with it and each other and to create a better life for all of us, diverse in our cultures and individuality.  

Remember in these times to plant a garden this spring.

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." – Greek proverb

  

God's Plans

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

I have an older friend who has spent her life as a missionary devoted to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and studying the Bible. She is extremely disciplined in her prayer life asking God for both guidance and help in carrying out his plan. Her focus is on a deep understanding of man’s separation from God, the reconciliation and redemption through Jesus Christ and the final fulfillment of his word and eschatology through the study of the Bible.  Everything for her is based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the word as revealed to her in the Bible.  Her belief is grounded in Evangelism which believes to experience and know God and understand his plan you must immerse yourself in the Bible. She knows that verses within the Bible evoke a deep sense of comfort in his love and his protection.  Although very disciplined in her approach to immerse herself in the Word, she also has a longing to tap into a spirit or intuitive guidance from God, a direction from within by the Holy Spirit.

My life has been very different.  I worked until my early thirties never reading the Bible and without a faith in God or consideration of what happens at death.  But then at the age of thirty I found myself suddenly fighting injustice and abuse, but in doing so experiencing a sudden vision in which I felt an evil presence that was part of a more insidious plan to get a spiritual stronghold and spread destruction.   I found myself racked in terror sobbing because I was going to have to face it in order to stop it.  But the problem was I had no foundation in the Bible, no understanding of God as love, no faith of trust in God that goodness will prevail in life and death. In the process I lost everything, but I knew from that experience that humankind will not survive unless there is a higher power.  My saving grace was that God then showed me a vision of a sinless earth with no illness or death -  an immersive experience in a different reality.  

As a mystic I experience the presence of good and evil and I can sense the progression.  I am aware of alternative realities and outcomes.  My challenge has been to not be overwhelmed by the visions, not to feel responsible for the outcome, but to trust that God will handle the plan and that I need to be in the moment acting from love.  And step by step, God has opened doors to bring me closer to him and gave me the grace to make mistakes as I learned to manage my gifts.  My joy and inspiration come from feeling God in the human experience as expressed in nature, my friends and family, my pets, and the arts and science.  My relationship to God is also a deeper connection to the Universal Christ in the cosmos and spiritual realm as inspired by scripture.  I communicate with God and others through knowing or wordless thought. 

Although I possess these gifts, I understand a carpenter (like Jesus) can experience God through by practicing his or her craft or an environmentalist can experience a deep connection to God through nature.  To know or experience God can be to feel a deep appreciation for this gift of life and beauty of this world -  the joy in fulfilling one’s purpose.  My experience is there are no limits on how God can communicate with us his plan or his love for us and it is not limited to the Bible.  Love is the universal language and God is love.

My spiritual journey has not been an easy road, but I am confident that God has been preparing me in a plan that is unfolding and to have joy knowing I am part of that plan.  My thoughts come from a deep intuitive connection and experience with God that I find again and again reflected in scripture.  

Music as the Body and Spirit

This Saturday morning as I drank my coffee and the cats took turns cuddling in my lap with the sun streaming through the windows, I played the music of Queen, contemplating the beauty of the human experience. The night before I had attended a concert by the St. Louis Symphony performing Queen with a front band and singer. The crowd stood and sang, clapped, danced, and rocked to songs such as Do You Want to Live Forever, Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody to Love, and We Are the Champions.  Music is the soul of life and the universe, bringing together in lyrics and sound the individual and collective human experience.  It is a form of prayer and worship because it calls us to celebrate both the pain and joy in our lives.  God is truly in all things, and music is a powerful voice from within.  The incredible human gift is to experience not only emotions, but to touch, hear and see.  To interact with God’s creation and to create with him.  

As I think about the future, in striving to fulfill my inner purpose in God’s plan focusing  on the love of God and each other,  my spiritual growth has come from my human experience and emotions.  We are not meant to live in a world devoid of human emotions.  The diversity of music in the world is a call to unity based on our human experience, not division.  I know as I write that the spirit and the body is both energy and mass, nothing speaks to that truth more than music.

So, play your favorite music, feel your emotions, and celebrate today the gift of body and spirit.