Yes it is....
I was out cleaning up the yard and fixing things up today when I noticed something peculiar. I had pulled out all of the tomato plants and cucumber plants in September....In fact I pulled out everything and started cutting up firewood and stacking it all where the garden once stood, getting ready for more campfires in the backyard.
I value the stone fire ring that Grant and I built together. It represents a dream fulfilled for me --and magical things always happen around the campfire--whether it be thoughts, dreams or deep conversations, there is no denying the magic that occurs there...and so I was stocking up preparing for more of those good things.
As I was cutting up a few more limbs for the stock of firewood I noticed we now had four firewood stacks of wood outlining the entire space of the garden except the very middle of the square.
Inside that square was a pepper plant that was on it's side and practically uprooted. It now had 6 green peppers on it ready to harvest bright green and glistening in the sun. There was second plant buried under the weight of the the first plant also on its side and it had another 3 baby peppers. The garden was yielding what I had not tended...what I was not weeding or supporting...was not watering or guiding to grow up straight and tall.
As I turned in wonder at what I was gaining in my harvest for the day--I realized other plants were growing up through stacks of firewood as well. At last count I had one flowering cucumber plant, 5 tomato plants and a cantaloupe vine reaching out--pushing up though a mess of wood covering it almost completely....yet it had found life...and a chance to push through the mess to reach up to the light...up towards the sky.
As I think back on my hard work and efforts to weed and grow a garden this spring and summer...I harvested much from that hard work. Now I am harvesting what I haven't tended, haven't toiled for...yet it is mine...mine to enjoy and to smile upwards and outwards.
I love the lessons I learn from the seasons and the garden this year.
Adam had two jobs in his life....To name things in his world as a man...and to tend to the garden. Sometimes I can hear the question "how am I tending the garden?" and know with confidence I am on target and changing the world...
Lately I have felt more that I am off the mark from my intentions...and not tending the garden very well.
Today again reminds me of the tidal wave of grace I am receiving in many ways--and the presents that grace yields. Although I want and strive to be intentional about all things in life...I fall short of the mark in many ways. Sometimes we are blessed with a harvest we never planted nor tended to intentionally.
And the reminder in this for me today?
It's not all up to me...
I need this reminder frequently--so I can have grace and forgiveness for myself...and forgiveness and grace for others.
It's not all up to me...
I just need to do my part. The part that's in front of me...not everything...not save the world...just this part now...even if that part is harvesting untended gardens.
