[Oe List ...] Abundance

[Herman Greene]

Margaret,

I would like to consider publishing this in The Ecozoic Reader (See
www.ecozoicstudies.com). If we could do this, please email me separately at
ecozoic at mindspring.com.

I would also like to invite others of the OE community to submit poems,
reflections, art and articles. The tagline of our publication is
"Conversations on an ecologically-based society." Several OE members--Nelson
and Elaine Stover, John and Lynda Cock, and Blase and Roseanne Sands and
other colleagues in Asheville-- are closely involved in or have important
ties to our work. Our current four-part series is "if we are moving into an
ecological age, where are we? (no. 1), how did we get here? (no. 2) where
are we going? (no. 3) and how do we get there? (no. 4). Our thought is
ecology is the broadest context for considering inclusive community (of
course, including humans and human social issues). The first edition is
almost done. The submission deadlines for the next three editions are
roughly August 15, September 15 and October 15. If you have something for an
edition that may be a little later than that, check with me.

Herman Greene


-----Original Message-----
From: OE-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:OE-bounces at wedgeblade.net]On
Behalf Of aiseayew
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2004 5:59 PM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: [Oe List ...] Abundance


This week was explosive.  My garden produced cucumbers, zucchini, yellow
squash, potatoes and the first cherry tomatoes.  I was overwhelmed and since
I can't share the fruits, I share the reflections.

I am not sure there is anything in this world to be learned that cannot be
known through growing a garden.  That work is required to do a life is a
given, so you prepare the soil and plant the seeds.  Then, as a first thing,
is the dynamic of trust.  You must trust the soil to render up its
nutrients.  You must trust the weather that it will not dish out more than
the plants can bear, and that it will meet out enough of what they really
need.  Then there is the issue of patience.  You must wait.  But you also
learn that patience is not idle.  Unseeded growth must not be allowed to
consume what you wish for your plants.



A garden is like going to church daily.  The plants growing tall raise
praises to the heavens.  Evil is manifest in the garden when you are
deterred from participation.  That which distracts you may be a change of
focus or it may simply be evil made manifest and attacking your intention.
Mosquitoes so insidious as to blight your body and mind can make you feel
akin to Job.



Unseeded growth seems related to unintended consequences.  I am saddened to
realize that seeds sewn through the ages, by the wind and water will come up
to overtake your intentions if there is no care or a loss of focus.  It
makes the “news” nearly every day.



Sorrow is known in the loss of a whole crop.  Obviously the rabbits needed
the tender shoots of the beans more that I needed the beans.  Joy is known
in abundance.  Timing is everything to both the comedian and the garden.



Forget your drivenness toward perfection.  It just won’t happen.  You are
not that much in control.  Planting these seeds didn’t make you god.  You
have dirt under your fingernails (those that aren’t broken to the quick)
that won’t come out until you are dead.



Responsibility is sometimes overwhelming in the garden.  Deciding which
shoots to thin and which to leave.  Not deciding condemns to marginality.
Against your own sense of will you must be obedient to the rain, sun, wind
and soil.  Freedom is exhilarating as you watch fruit flourish.



Pride, covetousness, lust, anger, sloth, envy and gluttony are all present
in the garden, both within the gardener and among the plants.



When you dig the potatoes and deposit newborn rabbits to your bucket, your
heart breaks.  Guilt is there in many forms.  You should have known a nest
might be there.  They did eat all the beans.  Why were you in such a hurry?
Will your touch result in a mother’s permanent rejection?



Grace is abundant.  Sometimes it happens.  Sometimes it doesn’t.



That work should make more than a living, it makes life, is obvious.  Love
is a garden.  It must see all things, bear all things, believe all things
and hope all things.  The kindness love requires may, most of all, be to
you, the gardener.  It is a way to understand all things.



In the love of life,  Margaret
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