Last night was my final class at St Andrew’s Episcopal church here in Seattle. Much of our discussion was around the principles and tenets of Permaculture. This method of agriculture, sometimes referred to as “do nothing gardening” is modelled observation of natural ecosystems. Out of that are developed self maintained horticultural systems.
I love the three tenets of Permaculture which could easily come out of the Bible and wanted to reflect a little more on these, incorporating some of the principles of Permaculture (and of the Bible) in the process.
- Take care of the earth – especially the soil. No life flourishes without healthy soil.
Taking care of the earth is not just about conservation however. The words that come to me are: Look back with gratitude & forward with anticipation. We need to look back to legacy of past stewards, learn from their techniques, preserve the heritage seeds they developed and cultivate native and other plants that are well developed for our climates. We als nee to look forward so those that follow us will reap the benefits. Our concern should not be for short term gain but for long term stable systems that therefore depend on long living perennials and trees that provide food for many years rather than short lived annuals.
Permaculture is not a quick fix garden technique. We need to take time to let the land speak, observing and interacting with it in all seasons, learn the patterns of rain, wind, sun, and noise, taking the animals into account and framing the vistas and views the land opens up. The idea is to work with nature and not try to control it.
Another basic principle of permaculture is to catch and store energy. We can catch solar energy in sun spaces, and greenhouses. We can use it in solar cookers, dryers and lights. We can also store water through the use of rain barrels and greywater (not allowed in many cities). And we can store the rain that falls on the earth with deep layers of compost and mulch. We can also store energy by storing the harvest in root cellars, or by preserving, drying and freezing.
Another important principle is the use of renewable resources. The idea is to produce no waste at all. Leftovers can be composted, dead trees cut down for new garden beds or firewood. Nature is an incredible waste free design that we could do well to emulate.
Mimicking the ways of nature, which has been refined in the science of bio-mimicry is something that has always intrigued me. God has created some amazing designs that we could emulate to save the planet.
- Take care of the people
For number one priority here is the need to form community & grow friendship by gardening together, preserving the harvest together and partying together. The idea is to integrate rather than segregate, cooperate rather than not compete. We learn to value diversity in our garden community as well as our produce. Community gardens and shared backyards can foster this.
One principle of permaculture is to use every available space. We use the edges by espaliering trees on walls, growing vines and hanging baskets. We use dark spaces by growing mushrooms. But perhaps (and here is my radical Christian perspective here, right out of the Old Testament.) – maybe we should leave the edge crops for others to glean
- Share the surplus:
Unless we share we do not really care for others, but as the author comments in The Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Permaculture, to share we must recognize that we have more than enough for ourselves. We live in a culture that teaches us there is never enough. We must hold onto everything. No wonder storage for excess household goods has become such big business. And sharing in a garden should go beyond the harvest. We should generously share techniques, seeds, recipes, skills and information. And above all we should share the beauty of our gardens, inviting others into our space whenever possible.
Each year around this time I like to update my Lenten resources. Last year I posts two lists of resources
And More Resources for Lent from the Episcopal Church
This year in keeping with our Lenten Theme – Return to Our Senses in Lent I decided to post practical suggestions for Lent that help us to integrate our prayer practices and our everyday life. I am excited at the suggestions people are sending me.
A United Methodist Pastor serving in north central Pennsylvania shared her newest spiritual discipline with me.
Several months ago I felt that I needed to give up internet, especially email and facebook on my Sabbath day. Then when doing a mini-series on Sabbath keeping at church after reading Gift of Rest by Sen. Lieberman, I realized that I needed to add phone calls to that. Sometimes it is difficult to avoid phone calls, emergencies and such but overall I recommend this type of fast. It is not easy. I can think of lots of reasons each week to go online but do my best to avoid it. I shared the commitment with my congregations, adding of course that if they were on the phone and said a spouse was having a heart attack or something like that I would surely pick up and make the visit. I have been amazed at my colleagues and parishioners who respect this fast, even my boss:)
And on the MSA blog my husband Tom has suggested embracing a new discipline of daily laughter.
Ann Voskamp also has a great idea for a family repentance box which she posted a couple of years ago.
If you are like me and looking for disciplines that help us to focus outwardly on the challenges our world faces you might like to consider these resources. I have focused on two challenges I am passionate about – climate change and poverty.
The Oil Lamp has shared several helpful links to sites that suggest ways to incorporate a carbon fast into your Lenten practices. I particularly enjoyed this link recommended by Archbishop Thabo Magkoba, convenor of the Anglican Environmental Network in South Africa: A Carbon Fast for Lent. They also have some good basic suggestions for a carbon fast here.
Earth Ministry’s LeAnne Beres wrote this helpful article about taking a Carbon fast a couple of years ago which includes links to other great resources.
You might also like to check out these resources for praying for the vulnerable and hungry during Lent.
The ELCA has a great World Hunger Lenten Series available – lots of good information and suggestions. They go for a $3/day diet – probably more doable today then the $2/day we have always attempted.
Bread for the World always produces wonderful resources that challenge us to face the issues of hunger. This year they have worked in collaboration with Women of Faith for the 1,000 Days Movement to develop a series of Lenten activities around the theme of Maternal and Child Nutrition in the 1,000 day window between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday. Check out what is be available here
Episcopal Relief and Development has chosen the alleviation of hunger for the theme of their Lenten Meditations this year too. They are available in both English and Spanish and can be downloaded for free.
And please keep contributing your own suggestions for Lenten practices that help bring faith and life together.
There is still time to sign up for the Lenten retreat. I am really looking forward to this – a great way to start this season of reflection and refocusing. If you are not in the Seattle area think about getting together with some of your friends wherever you are for retreat and reflection to kick off the Lenten season
When: February 16th – 9:30a.m. – 12:30p.m.
Where: The Mustard Seed House, Seattle, WA (510 NE 81st St.Seattle WA 98115)
The season of Lent awakens in all of us a hunger for deeper intimacy with God. Our world is alive with the presence of God, beckoning for our attention. Yet we are often distracted by busyness, worry and work.
Explore the simple things of everyday life – breathing, drinking a glass of water, running, picking up a stone or taking a photo – that open our senses to the God who shines through every moment and enlivens every creature. This time of reflection and refocusing is especially designed to draw us into the presence of God and prepare us for the season of Lent and Easter. Cost: $20. Snacks and coffee will be provided.
This last Sunday was Candlemas which commemorates the dedication of Christ in the temple. To be honest this is not a feast that I have bothered with in the past but on Sunday our preacher made a comment that really caught my attention. It is the last celebration of light before we enter the painful journey of Lent next week he said. Lets celebrate the light before we take off the festive clothes of Christmas for the last time.
Traditionally at this festival, people brought all the candles they expected to use during the year to have them blessed. This really impressed me because it so happened that on Saturday I brought what I expect will be the year’s supply of light too. A whole bunch of LED lights to replace the last of our incandescent bulbs. This week as I go around replacing these I plan to reflect on the blessing of light, not just the blessing of artificial lights that enable us to see in the midst of dark places, but the blessing of Christ’s light which shines in all the dark places of our lives and of our world. And I will reflect too on the coming of Lent, in some ways a dark season, but in others a season of dawning light in which we expose the dark and hidden places that we previously have not allowed the light of Christ to penetrate.
Perhaps you would like to take time this week to bless the lights that will see you through the year – not just the physical lights but the spiritual lights too. What are the resources you expect will illumine your darkness and give you light? And to start your journey you may like to reflect on this beautiful Celtic prayer:
Christ as a light, illumine and guide us.
Christ as a shield, overshadow and cover us.
Christ be under us, Christ be over us.
Christ be beside us, on left and on right.
Christ be before us, Christ be behind us.
Christ be within us, Christ be without us.
Christ as a light, illumine and guide us
As part of my current spiritual disciplines I am reading April Yamasaki’s book Sacred Pauses. I am thoroughly enjoying her book which has many similar themes to my own Return to Our Senses. This morning’s reading was her chapter Becoming Quiet, in which she talks about the gift of silence a great theme to contemplate on as we approach Lent.
In Scripture and in our own personal experience, we know that silence can actually communicate a lot. Sitting silently holding the hand of someone who is dying can communicate comfort. Standing in silence after a long hike up a mountain may say something about the breathtaking effort it took to get there as well as about the breathtaking beauty of the 360-degree view. (40)
She goes on to explain that there is no place so silence that it is completely without sound. In silence we are able to listen beyond everyday sounds for God. This was the phrase that really attracted my attention this morning. What are the sounds beyond the everyday noises that are the sounds of God? Once we have stilled the distractions of busyness, conversation, music and traffic what remains? These in some ways are the sounds of God.
The sound of breathing which is the breath of God passing into and out of our bodies filling us with life and love and energy.
The sound of our heartbeat pumping the life blood of Christ into every cell and fibre of our being, renewing, restoring and refreshing our bodies so that we can do and be all that God intends.
Even the sound of those little unconscious movements of hands and feet, of muscles flexing and tendons stretching, that remind me I am alive, a miracle of God’s creativity and expression.
These this morning are the sounds of God for me. The sounds that shout aloud in the place of sheer silence reminding me that God will never leave nor forsake me.
What are the sounds of God for you this morning?
The end of another week. I hope you enjoy these prayers that have been posted on Light for the Journey in the last few days. Thanks to Bonnie Harr, John Birch and Micha Jazz for their contributions.
I trust in you O Lord,
Not the one I think I understand
But you who are unknowable.
I trust in you O Lord,
Not the one who is as small as I am
But you who are immeasurably great.
I trust in you O Lord,
Not the one who sits uncaring in a far off heaven
But you came down to be one of us
You who are concerned for every person, every creature and every happening here on earth.
Amen
(c) Christine Sine
—————————
May I hold close O Lord,
To the wonder of who you are.
May I hold close O Lord
To the wisdom of what you teach.
May I hold close O Lord
To your ways that are high then mine.
May I hold close O Lord
And never let you go.
(c) Christine Sine
——————————-
Love grows
as it is given,
blossoms
as it is shown.
Love flows
like a steam,
refreshes
that which is sown.
Love grows
as it is spoken,
embraces
hearts and souls.
Love flows,
like a river
filling
empty vessels full.
Love grows
as it is taken,
increases
as it is shared.
Love flows
like an ocean
spreading
around the world.
——————————-
TODAY.
Certain I am that Christ was born
Of Jewish maid of Nazareth;
That this lone child of lowly bed
Enthroned God’s living breath
I was not there, I have no proof
Of scientific facts to give,
But I believe with all my mind
He died that dying worlds should live
Today this beauty drips with blood
The tree of life is scorched and bare;
Why did you die, when now your pain
Seems valued as the vapid air
Mary Denyer (posted by Contemplative Network)
—————————–
Lord Jesus Christ
You are the breath of life to me,
You are the touch of love to me,
You are the words of truth to me,
In you alone I place me trust.
(c) Christine Sine
———————————-
Lord Jesus Christ,
May I die to the old ways of living,
And be born again.
May I take on a new way of being
And allow your life and love
To enliven all I am and do.
May I look and see
That this truly is abundant life.
(c) Christine Sine
————————————
Lord Jesus Christ,
May I die to the old ways of living,
And be born again.
May I take on a new way of being
And allow your life and love
To enliven all I am and do.
May I look and see
That this truly is abundant life.
(c) Christine Sine
————————————-
May we go into the world today knowing we are
God breathed, Son drenched, Spirit filled.
May we go into the day,
Breathing life,
Drenched with love,
Filled with joy.
(c) Christine Sine
———————————–
May our hearts
always be ready
to be troubled
by injustice.
May our hands
always be ready
to share the load
of a stranger.
May our feet
always be ready
if asked to go
that extra mile.
May our pride
always be ready
to be humbled
before we fall.
May our love
always be ready
to be shared out
with those in need.
May our lives
always be ready
to be a lamp
in this dark world.
———————————–
May morning be astir with the harvest of night;
Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,
Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse
That cut right through the surface to a source.
John O’Dononhue
posted by The Contemplative Network
————————————
May we fit together in the way God intends
United by the bonds of peace,
Equipped to do good works,
Built up in the body of Christ.
May we help each other grow,
into the standards Christ proclaims
So that the whole body is healthy and full of love.
(c) Christine Sine
In the class I am currently teaching on Wednesday evenings on spirituality and gardening we are currently talking about what I call liturgical gardening. It is not by accident that Christmas occurs, at least in the Northern Hemisphere where the liturgical calendar was developed, at the coldest, darkest time of the year. The message of the season is: wait for the light and as we move into Epiphany, the season of light, we are all aware of the lengthening days and how welcome the emerging light is. This interweaving of the rituals of faith with the daily activities of life would have been a faith affirming and strengthening part of life for more rural societies.
The connection with Lent and the seasons of the year is less obvious. Often it is associated with spring cleaning, but that seems more of a middle class, urban association that I suspect developed as a later association for Lent. Wednesday evening this became the focus of our discussion. I pointed out that in Africa hunger and malnutrition is often seasonal. During the harvest season everyone is able to eat their fill and no one starves. By the time the stored supplies have dwindled it is a different matter. Sometimes the last of the stored grain is used for planting and in a very lean year even this may be used to feed the family. In 2010 925 million people in our world were still chronically hungry. (2012 World Hunger and Poverty Facts)
The season of Lent for many of us coincides with the planting season and I wonder if this seasonal hunger which would once have been experienced by a large part of the population influenced its shape. The typical fasting Lenten diet of lentils, beans and grain with little fresh produce and little meat could have come from the fact that this was often all that remained in the larder at this season.
I have tried to find information on this hypothesis but without success and would appreciate hearing from others who have considered this possibility. What I do know however that the dietary restrictions for this season became less and less rigorous as societies became more affluent and I suspect, people did not want to give up their indulgent diets. And today, if we give up anything at all it is usually something as trivial as chocolate or coffee.
Once when Tom and I were in Lebanon during Lent we had lunch with an Orthodox priest and his wife. They ate only lentils and rice but had prepared a lavish feast for us. Lent is a great time of the year to enter into the hunger of others by restricting our diets and giving what we save to those at the margins.
Each year Tom and I participate in what we call the $2 challenge, restricting our food budget to $2/person/day for a week. It isn’t easy and it often results in a rather monotonous diet, but it is a challenging and sobering way to identify with those who never have enough to put on their plates.
In my internet search for information on Lent and hunger I did come across some good resources you might want to check out:
The ELCA has a great World Hunger Lenten Series available – lots of good information and suggestions. They go for a $3/day diet – probably more doable today.
Bread for the World always produces wonderful resources that challenge us to face the issues of hunger. This year they have worked in collaboration with Women of Faith for the 1,000 Days Movement to develop a series of Lenten activities around the theme of Maternal and Child Nutrition in the 1,000 day window between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday. Check out what is be available here
Episcopal Relief and Development has chosen the alleviation of hunger for the theme of their Lenten Meditations this year too. They are available in both English and Spanish and can be downloaded for free.
Obviously this is only a small number of the many resources available during this season. If you know of others that specifically focus on issues of poverty and hunger please add them in the comments below.
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