Meditation for 5th July 2022

Gardening – Touch, Smell, See!

I have spent a lot of the last month gardening – both at home and helping my husband on our allotment. Of course, I realise how very lucky I am to have areas in which I can grow plants.

Gardening allows me to unwind and create and experience the wonders of God’s Creation thorough all my senses:

TOUCH – using my hands and feet to work the soil, my bare feet walking on a damp lawn

SMELL – the scent of freshly turned earth, the invigorating smell of newly wetted soil and leaves after rain, the delicate and rich scents of flowers and leaves

SOUND – the calling and songs of birds around me, the sound of tools – fork and spade as they till the soil

SIGHT – the beauty of patterns in planted flowers in the garden or rows of vegetables on the allotment, the randomness of mown and unmown areas with surprising appearances of a rich variety of wildflowers you did not realise were waiting to emerge, the rich and soft colours of the whole rainbow spectrum from red through to violet

Gardening is an activity in which you can easily lose yourself; you lose the sense of time passing and become totally absorbed in what is beneath your feet, the seeds you sow or seedlings you plant out, the exuberant foliage which you tenderly, sensitively cut back.

And then there is the harvest – the cutting of flowers for the house or to gift to a friend, the picking of fruit and vegetables, the preparation of those fruits for eating or freezing or sharing with others. Yes, it can be hard physical work but such rewards!

Being part of the team cultivating the New Churchyard has been a real joy. Creating two rose and lavender beds and contained herb and fruit gardens in the wonderful planters, made by Rob Archer, has given us a wonderful reminder of Rob’s generosity.

The establishment of the wildflower areas, the brainchild of Di Dickinson and Colin, and the planting of fruit and other trees around the churchyard are again a wonderful remembrance of Colin’s hard work and enthusiasm for gardening and wildlife.

The wildflower garden is blooming wonderfully at the moment with the addition of Corncockle, this year, and our first, spontaneous, Spotted Orchid! Do go and look!

Gardening gives us so much, but it is important that it does not become another onerous task.

We must take time to sit, and be, in those places we cultivate – to feel the sun on our faces and the gentle rain as it waters the plants we have sown, to observe the insects as they collect nectar and pollinate the flowers, to experience the peace and joy of looking at the myriad colours and shapes of flowers and trees and enjoy the bounty of harvested fruit and vegetables.

Thank you, Lord, for your gift of the natural world, the rich variety of plants and wildlife which we share on this planet. Help us to be good stewards of your gifts and may we enjoy all that you have given us.

In an address to the Carmelite Spiritual Reading Group (2018), Carol O’Connor used words based on David Adam’s autobiography, The Wonder of the Beyond,

“For David Adam it’s the very wonder of creation, the very seeing of the mystery: the beholding of a flower or tree or the ocean. To be alive is to recognise how connected we are to what’s around us. To be alive is to own our sensory experience and by that means then we understand that God doesn’t only meet us on a vertical plane, but a horizontal one as well”.

The David Adam prayer, Breaking New Land, seems appropriate when thinking about digging in the context of our spiritual life!

Breaking New Land
All that I dig with the spade,
I do it with my Father’s aid.

All that I dig with the spade,
I do it with my Saviour’s aid.

All that I dig with the spade,
I do it with the Spirit’s aid.

All that I dig with the spade,
I do it in God the Three’s aid.

Each turning of the soil I make,
I do it for the Three in One’s sake.