While I will never claim to be a gardener in recent years, I have enjoyed square foot gardening.
In my current apartment we do not have the ability to square foot garden, however we have been able to take over and call our own, one of several garden beds in the complex. Taking out and removing old overgrown rhododendrons has been particularly cathartic over the past year or two as I clear out the old, to make way for new plants including herbs, vegetables, and flowers to maintain a decent curb appeal to friend and neighbour.
The new garden has become a conversation piece as many people within the apartment complex as well as surrounding neighbours stop, admire and monitor some of the changes that have taken place.
As with any landscaping project, there comes a point in the process where the old growth has been removed and what lies before is an open dirt patch void of beauty and without any clear sign of the new vegetation that is to come. But soon, before too long, new plants arrive, a new landscape design begins to take shape and the garden comes back to life.
As I contemplate these changes in my gardening and other landscaping projects, I cannot help but be reminded of the Easter Gospel.
For those of us who follow the Christian Faith, death and resurrection is at our centre. Constantly we see all around us how aspects of our life come to their natural end in order to embrace the new life and opportunity that lies ahead. The changing of jobs, a new school, a new home are some of these changes. Within all these changes there comes that point where, like a garden, the old has passed and what lies before is a rugged dirt patch. This “dirt patch” becomes our clean slate full of potential.
When we embrace this moment, soon our new life and opportunities begin to take shape. Embrace it.
