"One of the things I love most about gardening is the way it makes a place for me and shows me how I fit into God's created world. In the garden I feel very open to God and to the nature around me. Everything, including me, is in its proper order.

     "I am God's creature, too, my garden teaches me. I feel related to all of it, the plants, the birds, the earthworms we so carefully cultivated, the occasional grasshopper, not to mention the deer who haven't found us yet. Gardening teaches me that I neither can nor want to be in charge, and thinking about getting My Way in the garden isn't even a very good joke. The garden has its own rhythms and necessities and I must work cooperatively and lovingly with those. In the garden I become more the person God made me to be."

                                                        Joan Uda, from At the Water's Edge: God's                                                                         Grace in Everyday Life

Fall Harvest

A chill in the air, and we are pulling beets and onions and gathering up the tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and chard. Already planning next year, a new spring at this time of life, I push my hands into the dark loam and unearth a cornucopia of potatoes and earthworms galore. 

They will hunker down and  sleep, but we are wide awake and dreaming of seeds to order and plant, where next to travel, the rain falling and the sun warming the soil of our lives, the seeds fattening and popping into tiny green leaves. 

I think of us, how God has watered our life together with love and grace, and worked everything so we are both fed and grow. 

Look up and give thanks. The geese flowing overhead sing our song again. "It's not too late.  It never ends." Here on this spot of ground, we are living the dream of our future.

                            --Lowell Uda