…My wife has it. Literally. She is sneezing, snorting and wheezing along with many in our good state who also suffer from allergies. She also has the baseball kind of spring fever. Now that baseball season has returned Amy has commandeered the remote control whenever the Braves are televised.
Last week I began having symptoms of spring fever. It started when I glanced at the many empty flower pots around our house. I realized that it was time to go by the nursery and purchase geraniums, ferns, and perhaps even a few tomato plants.
While I love where we live, I miss not having a suitable lot for a vegetable garden. In years past I would plant more tomatoes, peppers, and cucumber than I could ever possible eat. There is just something satisfying about watching something grow and bloom. I just finished an autobiography by Nelson Mandela and he shared that while he was a prisoner in South Africa gardening kept him centered and fulfilled even though he was surrounded by reminders of oppression.
To be in God’s community, like gardening, is about cultivating one’s life; enriching the soul. Albert Camus writes: “If there is a soul, it is a mistake to believe that it is given us fully created. It is created here, throughout a whole life.” Mirabel Osler compares the soul to a garden and observes, “[with a garden] there is no ‘The End’ to be written…but a garden is always on the move.”
As we find ourselves invested in the spring, making plans for the summer and even looking ahead to the next year, may we enter each day ready for the intentional labor of “soul-work.”
It is an honor to join with you in this holy labor through our community of faith.
Grace and peace,
Greg
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