Garden season is beginning here in Seattle. The crocuses and snowdrops are out and the daffodils are just beginning to smile at us. Flowering trees have burst into bloom around the neighbourhood too. In my garden room I have planted a whole slew of both flower and vegetable seeds and next week will plant tomato seeds. It is a wonderful time of year and gardening often forms the focus for my contemplation.
I love gardening, and find that it is a wonderful place to connect to God and find refreshment and healing for my soul. For many of us this connection is enhanced by the creation of special spaces that are specially designed to strengthen these connections. Even the small contemplative gardens I create to sit on my desk provide inspiration, refreshment and at times healing as I sit and meditate on them. I am one of a growing number of people around the planet that finding themselves drawn into the contemplative nature of gardens. I hope that this list of books will help all of us enter more deeply into this aspect of gardening.
Creativity, Contemplation and Gardening
- Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening by Vigen Guroian. A delightful collection of garden meditations from an Orthodox Christian perspective.
- Gardens for the Soul by Pamela Woods. A beautifully illustrated book that provides great insights on designing outdoor spaces using ancient symbols, healing plants and Feng shui.
- Rooted in the Spirit: Exploring Inspirational Gardens by Maureen Gilmer. This is another beautifully illustrated and very practical book that helps you link your gardening to spirituality.
- Cultivating Sacred Space – Gardening for the Soul by Elizabeth Murray. This book invites us into sacred gardens at every season giving inspiration and ideas for our own sacred spaces.
- Everyday Sanctuary A Workbook for Designing a Sacred Garden Space by Jessi Bloom. This is an informative workbook that helps you design sacred space in the garden.
- Landscapes of Prayer by Margaret Silf. A beautiful book of prayer reflections exploring 9 different natural landscapes
- Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for A Modern World by John O’Donohue. A treasure that celebrates the beauty and mystery of everyday things.
- Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth’s Landscapes Restore Us to Wholeness by Mary Reynolds Thompson. A journey into five great landscapes of our world that reconnects us to a rich source of wisdom, healing and wholeness.
- All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss. Twenty-five meditations reflecting on how wild animals adapt when darkness descends.
- Morning Altars by Day Schildkret. The best process I have found for contemplative practice with nature.
- Earth, Our Original Monastery by Christine Valters Painter.
- Farming While Black by Leah Penniman. Not explicitly Christian, but makes connections between racial and environmental justice/reconciliation.
- Slow Seasons: A Creative Guide to Reconnecting with Nature the Celtic Way by Rosie Steer. An excellent guide through the Celtic seasons and their significance for today.
- To Garden With God by Christine Sine. This book may be getting old but it is still one of my most popular A good read as preparation for the garden season.
Other Books
- The Sanctuary Garden: Creating a Place of Refuge in Your Yard or Garden by Christopher Forrest McDowell and Tricia Clark-McDowell
- When the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature by Thomas Merton
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- The Inward Garden: Creating a Place of Beauty and Meaning by Julie Moir Messervy
- The Pursuit of Paradise by Jane Brown
- Monastic Gardens by Mick Hales
- Upstream by Mary Oliver
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
- The Well Gardened Mind by Sue Steward-Smith
NOTE: As an Amazon Affiliate I receive a small amount for purchases made through links above.
The Spirituality of Gardening Online Course is a prerecorded course with 6 sessions that you might like to watch as the garden season begins in the Northern hemisphere.
This course will be given live on May 11th. It will be interactive with contemplative garden practices and much laughter involved.
Christine’s post Relinquish, Let Go and Lily’s post on Jesus going into the wilderness, I think, sit hand in hand. Letting go of things is like going into the wilderness. We’ve got used to what we do and we do it well, so why let go? Some of the reason can be that, like with Christine, new projects call us and there are only so many hours in the day. Some of the reasons are that even though we might have the time and the energy they are not what God has for us. Now that can be a hard one. It’s one I’m going through so I can speak from experience. I was doing a few writing workshops and projects and working with children, which I am also good at and love. In fact I wasn’t doing as much as I used to do in my 40s and I still had the energy to do it, but something was niggling in the back of my head/heart.
You know that feeling when God’s still small voice is pulling on you. Those things you love are not giving you the joy they used to. You put it down to needing more zinc, hormones being out of sync, partner/children not pulling their weight, seasonal light deficiency. So you change your diet, get a SAD lamp, sort out a chores list for the family, but still something isn’t quite right.
For me God got fed up of me not listening and it was my 84 year old mother’s health scare that brought things to a grinding halt. No worries she is fine now she’s slowed down a bit and decided she isn’t 30 any more. But the worry of her not being around and me being so busy that I didn’t have time to drive down country for 6 hours to see her. So it caused me to have to rethink things and hold things lightly.
But isn’t it a shame that I didn’t hear that still small voice in my heart that was trying so hard to tell me not necessarily to slow down but that there are things that I was doing that I am not meant to be doing. Interestingly in everything I do now those I work with know that if there is another health scare I will drop everything and just go. And of course, because I’m only doing the things God wants me to everyone I work with is content with that.
Not just in the “big wide world” but in Church circles there is so often that push to be busy. The question “what have you been up to this week/today?” comes up when you meet. “Where have you been worshipping/serving God?” And if one hasn’t got a full schedule one feels like one could be missing out on some form of service/ministry/doing! Added to that the inner jealousies that other people have “ministries” and you’re just bumbling about drinking tea!
Jesus going into the wilderness just after he’d been baptised and God had affirmed him as his son was not a good PR move. In our fast paced world his “team” would have told him to grab the opportunity immediately because if he didn’t someone else might. But Jesus was secure in not just who he was but in what he was meant to do.
Did you know that if you acted out the gospels and all the things Jesus did and said in them it would not last that long at all? Jesus had lots of down time, lots of time that was not worth recording in any of the gospels, lots of time just being, not just with God but with his disciples, his friends and even, I think, his family.
Hanging out not just for the sake of “friendship evangelism” or as a “teaching opportunity” but, I think, he was hanging out to enjoy other people’s company. We can learn so much from hanging out with other people and also find out more about ourselves. We also need quiet time not just for praying, not studying, not reading but just being and letting the world flow past.
So perhaps we all need some time over this Lenten season to stop, to think about whether the things, whether many or few, are what God really wants us to be doing. And then be brave enough to have gaps in our lives where there is nothing to do!
And I’ll finish with Christine’s poem from Monday’s meditation
Stay close to your inner world,
Travel slowly through the hidden corridors
Of your heart.
Listen quietly not for answers,
But for the questions
Hiding beneath the stress,
Of your uncertainty.
Do not be afraid,
Of what you will uncover,
Of what you might relinquish,
If you become honest
With yourself.
Resources to enrich your lenten celebration. Includes downloads of: A Journey Into Wholeness, Lent/Easter Prayer Cards, and 40 Daily Ideas Guide for Lent.
by Rodney Marsh
I am very fortunate to have a garden. I love to work, play and pray in a garden. The garden’s plants and animals support and sustain me. In particular, I think I am saner than I should be had I been forced to live without my daily immersion in nature. I don’t think I could survive a Melbourne style COVID lockdown in a tower block apartment! My primary spiritual discipline consists of two half hour sessions of meditation each day and I love to sit and be still and silent in our garden for this precious time. I wish to to introduce to you some animals who decided, perhaps because I was quiet and still, that the area in which I was praying was a safe zone – safe enough enough for them to enter. Let me introduce my very favourite garden friend – Eric(a) the Bandicoot.
The four or five species of Australian Bandicoot are all small marsupials – notice the ‘kangaroo’ type rear hopping legs, short tail, and the claw like ‘hands’ (forefeet) for digging. Eric digs for his food – small soil insects and fresh roots. Eric the Bandicoot could be Erica the Bandicoot. If it is Erica, then she has space in her pouch to nurture and nurse three or four young.
An Eric Snout Pouch (looking for food) Eric’s Road Warning(With a glass eye added by a neighbour)
The most inconvenient aspect to having a resident bandicoot is the random holes dug in the lawn and garden. Snout sized holes (pouches) in the lawn or garden beds are a sure sign of bandicoot activity. Local plants usually die when their roots are disturbed, but Eric must be gentle – the plants usually survive.
Cats would have eaten Eric when he was little, but now he is too big for a cat to tackle. And too fierce, I suspect. Eric may appear cute and mild mannered, but he will defend his territory and fight other males who venture into his garden. He does not back down from a fight, and he has long claws and sharp teeth. I have twice seen a bandicoot’s courage when I watched a beak/snout stoush between a crow and a bandicoot. Both times the crow backed down and flew away. Eric is fast too. As soon as I reach for my phone camera he will swiftly hop away. Cars are the biggest modern danger to bandicoots since bandicoots will suddenly rush out of the bush and run into the path of an approaching car, and, it appears, die by car suicide.
Since Eric lives in the garden and occasionally joins me during my time of garden prayer, does he bring a message from God for me? The photo shows Eric knows how to pay attention. He’s looking at me. He is perfectly still and If I should move he will be soon gone. I thought, I too can pay attention, but, compared with Eric, I am an amateur. Anyone who has tried to meditate knows one’s mind is soon off and away, attending to various plans, memories, emotions or impending disasters or pleasures. So perhaps Eric is saying to me “Be still. You are in a safe place. Attend to your prayer word and be, like me. Look and live and you will make some wonderful friends – like me. But forget to attend, wander off and move, and I will be gone. Be still.”
The Bandicoot looked at me
The bandicoot is still, silent
It knows how to just be
Watchful and waiting
Just as his Lord instructed.
“I know better than this bandicoot …
I will gather information, data
Then I will act to my advantage, then
I will do more, have more, be more,” says I.
The bandicoot looks at me with one eye and
He has a one word reply,
“Why? … and …
“If you forget to attend, wander off and move
I will be gone and so will your life.”
So I fix my eyes on the Bandicoot’s eye
I am still, I wait, I attend and then …
I see – when I do less, have less, are less
I am more, I am whole, I am One.
This bandicoot is my friend …
And my teacher.
The Liturgical Rebels Podcast empowers followers of Jesus to creatively reconstruct their faith and spiritual practices. Through conversation with groundbreaking practitioners from around the world who think creatively about new approaches to spirituality, we will emphasize the sacredness of all things and uncover ways in which God speaks to us through nature and creativity, through restorative justice and environmental concern, and through the mundane and ordinary acts of daily life. This podcast is for those who don’t want to just deconstruct, but also to reconstruct faith and spiritual practices; those who want to reshape belief and practice to journey closer to God and the wholeness, peace, justice and flourishing God intends not just for us as individuals but for the earth and all its inhabitants.
On Friday we launched my new podcast The Liturgical Rebels. It has been an exciting few days. I am overwhelmed by the number of you who have not only listened to this first episode, but also encouraged me with your words of affirmation and eagerness to listen to the next episode. I am very grateful for Melissa Kelly and Forrest Inslee without whose help it would never have seen the light of day. I love the fascinating people I get to interview and the new opportunities it is opening up for other involvement in God’s work.
As we move towards the second Sunday of Lent however, I realize that adding a big new project like this to my life also means relinquishing some of what I currently give my time and energy to. As I commented in yesterday’s Meditation Monday: Relinquish, Let Go “Lent is about relinquishment. It confronts us with our mortality, our vulnerability, our ambitions. It confronts us with how seriously we will follow Jesus into the future. “ It is a good season to reflect on hard questions like those I posed yesterday “For love of God, for love of the world and for love of myself and my inner wellbeing what am I willing to give up?” They have very serious consequences for my life. I appreciate your prayers as I grapple with this, as part of what I am rethinking is my involvement with godspacelight.com and I hope to be able to hand the resource centre which I know so many of you rely on, over to someone else.
I have also decided to cancel the Lenten Quiet Day on March 2nd. There are many other similar offerings available and I feel it is not the best use of my time. My apologies to those of you this may inconvenience. I will however still facilitate the Spirituality of Gardening webinar on May 11. I am really looking forward to this event, which is not just for gardeners, but for anyone who loves to get out and experience the wonder of God in the natural world. The garden has seemingly endless lessons to teach us about God and what it means to be a person of faith. We read about the miracle of the fish and the loaves in the Bible but experience a miracle every time we harvest God’s bounty. We read about the death and resurrection of Christ in the gospels, but experience it every time we plant a seed in the ground and watch it burst into life.
In her Freerange Friday: The Invitation of Lent Part 2 Lilly Lewin reminds us that a Lent invites us to be present with Jesus in the wilderness. She comments: “My fear often blocks my faith. The bitterness of the world gets under my skin and I become like it, sadly more hateful rather than more loving.” I think this is so true for all of us.
In Embracing Lent: A Spiritual Journey with Scripture Memorization Cards Hilary Horn reminds us of the power of scripture memorization as a practice during this season. As she says, By committing these verses to heart, we open ourselves to a richer and more profound experience of Lent, ultimately drawing nearer to the spiritual renewal that Easter promises.
I hope that you are fully engaged in this journey through Lent, taking time for reflection, introspection and outreach into God’s world. I pray that you too will take seriously the questions I have posed for this season and allow God to liberate you into relinquishment. Let me end with part of the poem from yesterday’s Meditation Monday which was inspired by my reading of Cole Arthur Riley’s Black Liturgies, because I think that this an important focus for all of us at this time.
Stay close to your inner world,
Travel slowly through the hidden corridors
Of your heart.
Listen quietly not for answers,
But for the questions
Hiding beneath the stress,
Of your uncertainty.
Do not be afraid,
Of what you will uncover,
Of what you might relinquish,
If you become honest
With yourself.
Many blessings
Christine Sine
by Christine Sine
Relinquish, let go, give up. These are the words that reverberate in my mind as a begin Lent this year. For love of God, for love of the world, but also for love of self, and my own wellbeing, what am I willing to give up? In this season of life, and in this stage of my faith journey what do I need to give up to continue growing towards the wholeness God desires for me. These, for me, are the serious questions of Lent, but will I take them seriously or will I instead focus on giving up something trivial and unimportant.
Lent is about relinquishment. It confronts us with our mortality, our vulnerability, our ambitions. It confronts us with how seriously we will follow Jesus into the future. I think of this as I reread the story in Luke 4:1-13 of Jesus sent out into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He is tempted by the desire for food and physical satisfaction, by the desire for power and wealth, and by the temptation to worship other gods, than the one he knows to be the creator of the universe and the only one worth bowing down to.
Our own temptations often take on a similar guise. Maybe we don’t spend 40 days in the desert, and maybe the devil doesn’t appear to us as dramatically, but throughout our lives we are tempted to satisfy physical needs not just for food but for clothing, housing and other material goods, often in extravagant ways. We are also tempted to accumulate wealth and power for ourselves and not for sharing with those in need around us. We are tempted too, to worship in ways that don’t put our creator God at the centre. Bound up in this is a temptation to create our own kingdoms of influence and have others worship us.
I think sometimes we only become aware of how much we have succumbed to temptation when we need to give something up. I ponder this as I launch my podcast, the Liturgical Rebels. At the same time I sense God is asking me to give up other aspects of the ministry I have been involved in for the last 20+ years. It’s hard to do that. Hard to let go, hard to rethink how we spend our time when we still enjoy what we do. I wonder if Jesus found it hard to let go of being a carpenter and the security of a steady income, and a stable life without the threats of violence and death.
At this point in time I still feel I am out in the wilderness considering what this new stage of life could look like. I love interviewing people and listening to their stories. I love encouraging people to consider fresh and nourishing ways to draw close to God but it takes time and something must go. I covet your prayers as I use this season of Lent to reshape my thinking for the future.
Let go
Says the whisper
In my mind.
Let go
Of what has had
It’s season of life
And productivity
And is now ready to rest.
Let go.
Let the nourishment
Of the old,
Provide life for the new.
Let go,
Stay close to your inner world,
Travel slowly through the hidden corridors
Of your heart.
Listen quietly not for answers,
But for the questions
Hiding beneath the stress,
Of your uncertainty.
Do not be afraid,
Of what you will uncover,
Of what you might relinquish,
If you become honest
With yourself.
Let go,
Listen.
It is a sacred art,
uncovering holy moments,
Divine encounters
That draw us
Into intimacy with God.
(c) Christine Sine.
On Friday we launched the Liturgical Rebels podcast with an inaugural episode in which Christine Sine and Forrest Inslee talk about what it means to be a liturgical rebel and why you should consider becoming one.
This podcast is for those who feel restricted to spiritual practices that often seem outdated and of little relevance in today’s world. It is for those who are discouraged to express their own creative talents and develop spiritual practices that are uniquely them, The Liturgical Rebels podcast is for people who want to reimagine and reconstruct their faith and spiritual practices.
The Liturgical Rebels Podcast empowers followers of Jesus to creatively reconstruct their faith and spiritual practices. Through conversation with groundbreaking practitioners from around the world who think creatively about new approaches to spirituality, we will emphasize the sacredness of all things and uncover ways in which God speaks to us through nature and creativity, through restorative justice and environmental concern, and through the mundane and ordinary acts of daily life. This podcast is for those who don’t want to just deconstruct, but also to reconstruct faith and spiritual practices; those who want to reshape belief and practice to journey closer to God and the wholeness, peace, justice and flourishing God intends not just for us as individuals but for the earth and all its inhabitants.
Episode 1 link
In this inaugural episode Christine Sine and Forrest Inslee discuss what it means to be a liturgical rebel and why it matters. They discuss how we enhance our faith by connecting to God revealed in nature, in creativity, and in the everyday acts of life. They encourage us to explore our own pathways to discover spiritual expressions that resonate in our souls, strengthen our faith and nourish our spirits. You can find out more about Forrest Inslee at Earthkeepers Podcast and Circlewood.
How are you feeling as this Lenten season begins? I’m baby stepping into Lent…going slowly into the season of reflection and continuing to ponder Jesus in the Wilderness and the Invitations of Lent.
Lent invites us to be PRESENT with Jesus.
Lent invites us into the WILDERNESS. Into places of desolation and discernment.
Lent invites us to be present with Jesus in the Wilderness.
To be present with others who are in the Wilderness
To be present to our own suffering and the suffering of others, being present to those who are alone and feeling abandoned, those who are forsaken, lost, hopeless, angry or depressed.
TAKE SOME TIME TO PRAY for people who are suffering and places where suffering is happening in our world.
How are you being invited to be PRESENT with Jesus during this Lenten Season? What do you need to be more present?
MARK 1:9-15 FIRST NATIONS VERSION
It was in those days that Creator Sets Free (Jesus) came from his home in Seed Planter Village (Nazareth) in the territory of Circle of Nations (Galilee), to have Gift of Goodwill (John) perform for him the purification ceremony.
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was a mature man of about thirty winters. The time had come for him to show himself to all the people and begin his great work. He waded out into the river to have Gift of Goodwill (John) perform the ceremony.
10As soon as Creator Sets Free (Jesus) came up from the water, he saw the sky open. The Spirit of Creator came down like a dove and rested on him. 11Then a voice from the sky spoke like distant thunder, “This is my much-loved Son who makes my heart glad!”
HIS VISION QUEST
12Right then and there the Spirit drove Creator Sets Free (Jesus) into the desert wilderness. 13For forty days and nights he remained there, surrounded by wild animals and being tested by Accuser (Satan)—the ancient trickster snake. Spirit-messengers also came to give him strength and comfort.
14Then later, after Gift of Goodwill (John) was arrested, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) traveled to the territory of Circle of Nations (Galilee) to tell the good story.
15“The time has now come!” he said to the people. “Creator’s good road is right in front of you. It is time to return to the right ways of thinking and doing! Put your trust in this good story I am bringing to you.”
What do you notice that you haven’t notices before?
What is the Holy Spirit Highligting for you form this passage?
USE THE ART TO HELP YOU CONTEMPLATE the Invitation of Lent and the Wilderness:
The Main Painting is “Man of Sorrows” by William Dyce
A Scottish Artist who painted Jesus in the Wilderness as a Scottish in the Scottish Highlands. What would your wilderness look like? and What does your Jesus look like?
Imagine sitting in the Wilderness with Jesus. Sitting around a fire. What would you want to talk about? Know about? Learn? How does it feel to know that Jesus is with you in the Wilderness? That you are not alone?
The Wilderness is a place of temptation. How are are you and I being tempted? What things cause us to follow ways of the Enemy rather that the Way of Jesus? For me, it’s my phone (too much social media), my work, my ambition, my judgement of others, my inaction and my negative reactions all get in the way of LOVE. My fear often blocks my faith. The bitterness of the world gets under my skin and I become like it, sadly more hateful rather than more loving.
This Lent I need Jesus to heal me!
Learn more about this painting:
Christ in the Desert/ Wilderness 1872 painting by Russian artist Ivan Kramskoi,
Lent begin with the Ashes of Ash Wednesday…to remind us of our mortality and our need for Jesus and his love, healing, and resurrection power! READ THE POEM and consider just what the CREATOR of the Universe can do with DUST! Can do with you and your life, can do with you even in your wilderness this Lent!
BLESSING THE DUST
All those days
You felt like dust, like dirt,
As if all you had to do was turn your face
Toward the wind And be scattered to the four corners.
Or swept away
By the smallest breath
As insubstantial—
Did you not know what the Holy One
Can do with dust?
This day we freely say, we are scorched.
This hour, We are marked by what has made it
Through the burning.
This is the moment ask for the blessing that lives within
The ancient ashes,
That makes its home inside the soil of this sacred earth.
So let s be marked not for sorrow.
And let us be marked, not for shame.
Let us be marked not for false humility
or for thinking we are less that we are.
But for claiming
What God can do
Within Dust,
Within Dirt,
Wishing the stuff
of which the world’s made
And the stars that blaze in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge we bear.
JAN RICHARDSON from “Circle of Grace: A book of Blessings for the Seasons”
Listen to these SONGS and CREATE your own Lenten Playlist to help you be present with Jesus this Lent
“As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus’ thirst … He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you.”
– St. Teresa of Calcutta
Let Jesus LOVE YOU this Lent!
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