I am currently in Washington D.C. where the cherry blossoms and magnolias are in full bloom. The beauty of God’s creation is awe inspiring and so I could not resist republishing this prayer from To Garden with God together with one of the photos I took at the National Arboretum yesterday. It is also Earth Day in a couple of weeks and this is a wonderful season to remind ourselves of our responsibility to God’s good creation. Enjoy!
You can find the prayer without the photo here.
Photo by Matt Freer – used with permission
Last week I received a link to an article from my friend Steve Goode reminding me:
In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”.
Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members.
This is an issue that I have always been passionate about and I am always frustrated by how complex it is and how difficult to eradicate. The needs so overwhelming and our ability to make a difference seems so limited. I was delighted when I came across this article by Lindsay Tanne:
In Bihar, India—where the bride’s family traditionally pays a dowry—residents are planting the seeds for women’s progress.
Families in Dharhara village have started a new tradition: planting 10 trees whenever a girl is born.
But the gesture is not just symbolic—when it comes to marriage, the benefits are as sweet as the lychees and mangos that will grow.
Subhas Singh, the father of a 19-year-old daughter who is set to marry this month, describes the trees he planted as “our fixed deposits.” He explains that he sold off the fruit three years in advance to pay for his daughter’s wedding. Read the entire article
The planting of trees is not just life giving to those women whose families sell the fruit to provide for their weddings. It is also life giving for the environment.
This story reminds me of one of my heroes of the environmental movement- Wangari Maathai who started teaching women to plant trees around their villages in Africa. Her actions started a movement that spread around the world. May the planting of these trees too start a movement that spreads and changes lives.
This video brought tears to my eyes when I came across it a couple of years ago. Practicing resurrection, redemption, renewal indeed. It is amazing to think that rape and violence against women could be reduced by solar cooking. Solar cooking can bring peace and dignity to women’s lives. What impact I wonder could our own creativity provide for people at the margins?
Its garden day at the Mustard Seed House. We will be transplanting tomatoes, and other summer vegetables, weeding and tidying up the porch (I hope). Our garden never looks as tidy as we would like but it produces lots of food – including these wonderful early greens (had our first garden salad this week).
Early garden greens grown under row covers.
All of this reminded me that I have not mentioned how you can be a part of our garden efforts here;
- If you live in Seattle and would like to participate in our garden days – good times of food, fellowship and gardening – let me know
- I have started over 120 tomato plants, and more basil and squash – obviously more than we can plant. Each year we sell vegetable starts as a small fundraiser for MSA so if you would like to buy your plants from us (sorry only if you can pick them up) here is the order form.
- And it is also time to sign up for the Spirituality of Gardening seminar on May 18th.
- Those of you who do not live in the Seattle area may like to consider developing your own garden community and perhaps, like other groups we are connected to, you would like to use To Garden With God as a resource – lots of garden reflections, liturgies and prayers to start your garden days with. Even recipes to help you with what to do with the produce. It is available in black and white, colour and ebook versions. You can even get it together with Snohomish soap’s wonderful hand cream and garden soap in our garden bundle.
Together with my Mum – Australia 2011
Last night on Facebook, I posted that I had just booked tickets for Tom and I to go to Australia in June to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday. I was amazed at the response, not just the “likes” it received but at the comments by those who remembered special times with their own mothers and fathers. One person shared about taking her mother to Israel when she was in her 80s. Another mentioned that she is heading to Sweden to celebrate her mother’s 85th birthday. Another grieved the fact that she had lost her mother when she was still young and had no opportunity to enjoy the celebrations we are relishing.
When my Dad died nearly 4 years ago, I made a commitment. I decided that I would head down to Australia twice a year to spend time with my Mum. It has not always been easy. The flight is long and gruelling, the work doesn’t stop while I am away and the financial pressure sometimes has me questioning my decision. But the fruit of these visits is immeasurable. The special memories of these last few years are more than I could ever imagine.
Time spent with loved ones needs to be a priority in our lives. If we are too busy or too stressed to party with family and friends then we need to question our priorities. The kingdom of God begins with a great banquet feast and I think that every time we gather with friends and families we catch a glimpse of what that will look like.
Maybe it is not your mother that you need to plan a party for. It could be a friend you have not seen for a long time. Or it could be for your colleagues and co-workers. Or for your neighbours. Celebration is at the heart of God’s kingdom. Jesus’ critics complained that he spent too much time partying – eating and drinking with friends. And he enjoyed that wedding at Cana so much that he made it even more fun for people by turning water into wine. Unfortunately too much partying is not often a criticism people accuse Jesus’ followers of much these days.
So take some time this morning to think about how you could plan a “resurrection party” for those you know and love. What would you need to let go of to free up the time necessary to make it happen?
George Fox students help out in the Mustard Seed Garden
Each year, as you know I like to update my resource lists. Here are the best sites and suggestions I have come across since I posted my list last year. I have already written some comments on the topic of community gardens this year:
Creating A Faith Based Community Garden – Much to Reflect On
And if this does not provide enough reading for you, you might also like to check out this list of resources for urban farmers:
My Favourite Urban Farming WebSites
Note: This is partly reposted from last year’s list with some additions and deletions where links have changed.
Resources for Creating a Faith Based Community Garden
- Montgomery Victory Gardens: Tips for Starting a Faith Based Community Garden
- North Carolina State University Community Gardens: Eat Smart, Move More North Carolina: Growing Communities Through Gardens
- Seattle Public Utilities Natural Lawn and Garden Care provides a variety of downloadable resources including:
- Garden planning
- I just started using the Mother Earth Garden Planner and am loving it
- Plan Garden – a web based garden planning site
- Gardener’s Supply Kitchen Garden Planning – a great tool for planning a garden based on the square foot garden method. This is free but more limited.
- Sparks in the Soil
- Sustainable Northwest: Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns
- Sustainable Traditions
- Soulsby Farm blog
- Faith & Food: Biblical Perspectives (United Methodist Church)
- Food and Faith blog (Presbyterian Hunger program)
- For those interested in food, faith, and gardening in the Twin Cities, visit the Facebook page created by the Faith-based Edible Gardening Collaborative.
Some resources from my friends at ARocha Canada
- The Vancouver Community Agriculture Network www.vcan.ca: an excellent community garden manual available on their website – a good, thorough guide to starting and running a community garden
- The American community garden association www.communitygarden.org
- City of Vancouver Community Services Social Planning Department www.vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/projects/gardens.htm: a website with an extensive list of resources, links, etc. for community gardening.
- City Farmer www.cityfarmer.org: a veritable treasure trove of information on all manner of urban agriculture information
And from England
- Grow Zones – a community growing resource started by Earth Abbey in the UK, that brings people together locally to help one another grow fruit and vegetables in their own gardens. Participants are supported by the Grow Zones Kit, which is designed to make the prospect of growing fruit and vegetables a less burdensome, more enjoyable prospect and overcome the obstacles to ‘growing your own’.
- Earth Abbey
As well as my own book To Garden with God, you may also find the following books on spirituality and gardening helpful
- Farming as a spiritual discipline
- The art of the commonplace: The agrarian essays of Wendell Berry
- Craig Goodwin: Year of Plenty
- Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette, A Monastic Year: reflections From Monastery
- Vigen Guroian: Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening
- Wendy Johnson: Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World
Resources-Curricula for Churches / Faith communities
From Catholic Community Gardens:
- start a faith-based garden! here’s how: Howtostartafaithbasedcommunitygarden2.pdf
- garden food safety: FoodSafetyWebCurriculum.pdf
- community garden tips: howtostartacoomunitygarden.pdf
- allotment garden tips: allotmentgardens.pdf
Some of these ideas are a little repetitive but I also loved:
- this leaflet from WeTHRIVE! which partnered with the Center for Closing the Health Gap (CCHG) on 20 gardens. CCHG developed a model for church-based gardens:Do Right! Church-Based Gardens Tool-Kit, to help alleviate poverty in Hamilton County near Cincinnati.
- Just Eating? (Presbyterian Church USA curriculum for middle schoolers and adults)
- Congregational Tool Kit – Land Stewardship Project . This kit contains videos, resource materials and activities for small and large group gatherings with a focus on building healthy communities by linking people with their food, the land and each other.
- Let’s Move Faith and Communities launched by Michelle Obama provides some excellent resources including this toolkit which contains good basic information on community gardening
- The US Department of Agriculture also has some helpful resources available including this start up community garden guide
- Master gardener programs which exist throughout US and Canada are a great resource for volunteers, advice and expertise. I heartily recommend contacting your local branch to see if there is a volunteer who might assist your garden’s development.
- Harry Wyman from the Peace Tree Community in Perth has started a global permaculture network. I love the concept of permaculture and hope that we will be able to implement many of its principles in our garden at the Mustard Seed Village
This year I have taken Seeds of Change off my list (see explanation here)
Spring has come
Spring is here – at least in the Northern Hemisphere and it makes me realize how important it is to connect the rhythm of our faith to the rhythm of God’s world. It was only when I sent Easter in the Northern Hemisphere for the first time that the wonder of the resurrection burst upon me. And even now I am awed by the blossoming of God’s world in a way that assures me resurrection really has happened and God’s new world has begun.
At lunch today I will once again be speaking on Spirituality and Gardening. The increasing popularity of this topic makes me realize how much others crave the same kind of connections between their faith and the world around them. As I always say in these seminars: In the Bible I read about the death and resurrection of Christ, in the garden I experience it. In the Bible I read about the abundance of God’s provision, in the garden I experience. The story of God is constantly being lived out God’s world, affirming who God is and who God intends us to be.
Like me many urban dwellers have discovered the joys of vegetable gardening in the last few years and in the process have grown in their intimacy with God. Hopefully, they start small and then as their taste buds explode with the delight of vegetables straight from the garden something strange happens and they become obsessive about converting their lawn into edible vegetation. There is nothing quite like the wonderful sweet flavour of tomatoes picked straight from the vine or of corn that has gone straight from plant to the pot. And to experience the delight of leeks and carrots that have been dragged out of the frosty ground is out of this world.
Why has it taken us so long to discover what people in most other parts of the world have always known – store bought food just doesn’t taste real even when it is organic and “picked from the vine”. Even a friend of ours who is a well known celebrity chef has just discovered in his 70s that food grown in your own backyard is better than any restaurant gourmet meal.
There are many other benefits to growing your own food too. Working in the garden gets us outside into God’s good creation. As I mentioned in a previous post on nature deficit disorder, I don’t think that we realize the consequences to our health – both physical and spiritual of lives that are spent inside under artificial light. Insomina, depression, and of course obesity are all linked to sedentary indoor lives. A growing number of people are talking about nature deficit disorder. Kids in particular suffer from nature deficit disorder and as I talk about in this post: attention deficit disorder can be alleviated by encouraging kids to spend more time outdoors.
There is also evidence that exposure to soil bacteria could improve our health by boosting our immune system. And believe it or not even Sniffing Compost Makes You Happy – Literally
Other studies suggest that just looking at nature can improve our health and reduce the time it takes us to recover from surgery. So imagine what a difference a whole afternoon outside can do.
Getting our kids involved in the garden can have even more benefits. In her article Go Outside and Play: Four Reasons Why Exposure to Nature is Essential To a Child’s Wellbeing, Suzy DeYoung talks about the amazing health benefits of getting kids outside. According to the EPA indoor air pollution is the US’s number one environmental health concern. They encourage kids to get outside and play but I think that working in the garden can be even more beneficial.
There is also evidence that spending time outside in nature stimulates our creativity and imagination. And gardening certainly adds to that creativity – because once we have produced all that food we need to work out what to do with it which means that we become more creative in our cooking and our preserving of food too. At least that has been my experience.
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