TRANSFORMATION IN THE GARDEN

From Winter’s Barrenness to Summer’s Bounty

In 2004 I retired as a Camp Director and Administrator. During my ten years in that position I made October pilgrimages to Pendle Hill, a Quaker Retreat and Study Center, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. After ten weeks of supervising a staff of fifty college age counselors and tending for two hundred girls from age four to twelve, I was ready for a break. I would gather unread books, unfinished writing projects and an unrested body and check in for a month of letting my soul emerge from its hiding place and feel the delightful silence and rest it had been deprived of for the last six months. Those pilgrimages were rich and I always left refreshed and energized to return to work at preparing for the next camp season. I did that for five years and then replaced my October pilgrimage to a six month stay in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. (It was a rough life but someone had to do it!) But I always held Pendle Hill sweetly in my memory and deep in my heart. When I retired from camp and spent my last winter at the beach, I decided to return to Pendle Hill, this time as a Resident Student.

Pendle Hill’s Resident Student Program consists of three ten week sessions. I attended the Spring Session. I choose three classes, one of them being the Organic Gardening Class that would have a major impact on my spiritual life. The class was responsible for preparing the garden that grew a lot of the vegetables used in preparing the food for students and guests at Pendle Hill. I took the class because I wanted to be a part of the actual growing process of the food I would be eating. Centuries ago that would have been the normal way of life for all people. But these days most of us eat prepackaged and processed food that we purchase from the supermarket, not having a clue or a care of where it comes from. I wanted real food and I wanted to be a part of the process f growing, tending and preparing it to become my source of good and healthy nutrition.

The gardening class intertwined with my spiritual life and the knowledge I gleaned as I was producing physical food that would feed and nourish my body also became my spiritual food that would feed and nourish my soul. These days a great deal of what we know about God and our spiritual lives come to us prepackaged and processed from preachers, teachers, and books containing well researched and predigested thoughts and ideas of the authors. I wanted raw and organic spiritual food and wanted to be a part of the process of growing, tending and preparing it as the source of life energy to my soul and spirit.

The first day of class we gathered in the class room. Carol, our teacher and head cook for Pendle Hill, brought several trays of seeds that she had already started preparing. Some had tiny little, what looked like threads, that had broken through the seed coat. Carol explained what they were.

“Those are the roots that will eventually be the source of nourishment for the plant that will grow the fruit that will eventually be the food I will prepare to feed you all.” All I could think was AWESOME. They were so thin and so fragile it was difficult to believe they would have such an important role in the growth of the plant. I was ready to plant those seeds and watch them grow. Carol gathered us together and we put on our coats and hats and walked down to the garden. Someone asked,

“Shouldn’t we take the seeds with us?” Carol simply smiled and said,
“Not yet. Now before we go down I want you all to put on your vision glasses.” I wasn’t sure what vision glasses were, until we got down to the garden. Then I figured out why we needed vision glasses and why Carol smiled when she said, not yet.

The garden looked like a tornado had gone through the area, dropping trees, leaves and general debris all over the ground. The plants and stakes from last season were bending over, if standing at all. It looked more like a war zone than a garden. I think the phrase, ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ when through my head and reflected out on my face, because Carol came over to me and said,

“I told you to put on your vision glasses. In a month or two this will be the most beautiful place on campus. And you will be a part of making that happen.” I smiled my unbelieving smile and walked around trying to see what she was seeing. I am generally a woman of faith but this really looked pretty hopeless or scarier yet it looked like a lot of hard work, which usually is involved in creating something beautiful. But in the words of Builder Bob,
“Can we do it?”
“Yes, we can!” We went back into the building and we were each given a tray of seeds to tend until they were ready to go into the ground. I told my little pepper seeds that I would do what I could to prepare a good place for them to grow and I tried to say it like I believed it.

The first thing we did next class was to set our goals for the garden. We knew we were responsible for a large percentage of the fresh food it would take to feed a large number of people during the summer months. Knowing that information we had to determine the most efficient way o produce a variety of vegetables in the allotted space available to us, determining what plants are compatible to each other, what plants needed more sun than others and what plants grew vertically or spread out along the ground. After we determined all the factors we drew a chart of the garden and then began to arrange the work that would need to be done to attain our final vision of our garden. The first job was to gather rakes, hoes and shovels and clean all the debris that had accumulated over the winter so we could at least see the beds that were hiding under them that needed to be dug up.

Before I began my spiritual journey my life kind of looked like the garden, all covered over with debris. Life’s events, circumstances and neglect can leave a lot of debris that must be cleared away. At one point I made the intention to change the way I had been living and get more aligned with what I believed God had in mind for my life. I had to get rid of a lot of ‘stuff’ that accumulated due to my laziness, neglect and failure to be mindful about my choices that I sometimes made. I envisioned the kind of person I wanted to be and the kind of life I wanted to live, and then made set up goals steps to follow to produce those goals. Then I got to work trying to make something that was empty and barren a bit more beautiful.

The rest of our classes were outside, actually in the garden. After the debris had been removed and we could actually see the beds, the digging began. The ground was hard from laying fallow all winter. We shoveled and hoed until the dirt was loose and broken up two feet down. That would give those roots that I had been fascinated with a lot of room to dig deep and find the proper nutrients to help the plants they were going to feed and water grow strong. It took a lot of time and back breaking work to go that deep but we knew it was necessary so we did it. At night I would be exhausted and my back was in pain. But after a good nights rest and the vision in my head about the garden to come somehow made the pain worthwhile and meaningful.

Life is difficult sometimes, especially when I am digging deep to find answers to guest ions I need to grow strong spiritually. Suffering is painful but if I can keep the end goal as the vision in my head, it somehow makes it easier to get through those painful times. Suffering helps to break up the fallow ground of the heart and makes it soft and palpable. A soft and tender heart is necessary in order to feel compassion, not only for ourselves but also for others. Compassion is what everyone in this often cold and cruel world needs so, if that is the fruit of the suffering, then the work is worth the effort.

While we were working on the soil outside in the garden, we were also tending to the seeds inside. Once the seeds had germinated, we put them in small soil blocks. As the sprouts grew we increased the size of the soil block so the roots could grow. Eventually they were stable enough to be planted. For a couple of days we would take the trays of tiny plants and put them outside for a few hours. This is called hardening off the plants. I acclimates them to the weather and conditions that surround them, a little at a time. Finally it’s time to plant them. One by one they go into the soil with enough space in between them for them to grow. Then they are watered once a day for a while and then eventually only when needed. They are pretty much on their own now to grow into what they are to be. Carol had started working with the seeds in February and at the end of May we planted them. There is no instant and immediate growth with plants. It takes time and patience and loving care.

Our work was done at the end of May. Then the Garden Interns took over where the students left off. I stayed for the summer, working in another intern position so I was fortunate enough watch the rest of the process of a seemingly ugly, useless plot of land grow, blossom and bloom into a wonderful beautiful garden. I would walk down there almost everyday to watch with wonder as those tiny seeds I took care of became huge plants filled with a bounty of vegetables that eventually filled our stomachs with fresh, unpackaged, unprocessed food. I was blessed to be able to see and eat the fruit of my labor. One day while in the garden Carol came down to pick some tomatoes for a dish she was preparing for our dinner. She came up beside me and said,
“Didn’t I tell you this would become the most beautiful place on campus?” I just smiled and shook my head yes.

I have those moments in my life when I see fruit coming forth in my life. Good fruit like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” (Galatians 5:22,23) Then I think back to when things looked ugly, useless, even impossible and see how beauty now blossoms and blooms in my life. Then I hear God say,
“Didn’t I tell you that I would redeem my beauty within you?” I just smile and shake my head yes.