Love Letters From The Vine-

Weeding Flowers?

          Wet and soggy from monsoon rains, the garden gave way under my feet leaving muddy tracks as I harvested dry, purple bean pods.  Harvesting them was a bit more complicated than I imagined when asked to do the task as they needed to be at just the right stage of development before being delicately snipped from the vine.  As they mature, native dry beans progress from a waxy bright purple color to a mottled, brownish deep plum color with a crispy feel.  To harvest them, I had to carefully inspect each one, feeling for just the right texture and color, before delicately snipping it off the vine and putting it into my small brown paper bag.  My supervisor, Susan, is hoping use these dried beans to make a delicious and bountiful bean soup for the upcoming faculty potluck. Unspoken, but clearly understood, is that these beans are a statement of the investment in growing food for taste, nourishment, and sustainability.  The SSLUG garden is a demonstration garden and these beans are a demonstration of all the reasons this kind of garden exists.  In short, these beans are a big deal.

     After spending more time inspecting and harvesting the beans than I had anticipated, I had nearly filled a lunch size paper bag full of crispy, full pods.  I excitedly went to show them to Susan, expecting her face to show delight at her modest, but viable harvest of beans.  However, as I came upon her bending down in another part of the garden I found her with handfuls of nearly 6 foot blooming sunflower plants and blossoming pink sweet peas pulled out by the roots with a determined and almost fierce look on her face.  I quickly discerned that these bright yellow and pink flowers were headed for the compost/trash pile.  I'm sure my face looked puzzled to see her pulling out these  lovely sunflowers and sweet peas in full bloom.  She quickly answered the question I had yet to ask by emphatically saying, "There are way too many flowers in this section now!  We need this space to plant more food.  Time is short to grow more food.  We need food!"

     "Oh, yes, of course," I mumbled.  I offered to help her take the flowers away as I processed this strategy.  Food?  Yes, food.  Carrots, spinach, wheat--any kind of plant food--is designed to sustain, nourish, and give us life.  Without plants as food we would be hard pressed to stay alive.  We have been given miracles in every plant that serves to feed us with untold micronutrients that contribute to our health and longevity.  Growing these precious miracles in our own backyard to cultivate taste and nutrition, while making a minimal demand on the environment, is the original design of our unfathomable designer, God. Yes, we need food.

     As I took away the flowers and began to help her sow seeds of spinach, kale, and cilantro, I reflected on the parallel in my own life.  What beautiful, but fleeting flowers are decorating my life, but not growing anything that nourishes my soul?  An even greater question--what exactly would nourish and feed my soul?   What do I crave and truly need to be healthier emotionally, physically, and spiritually?  For starters, I know I need to pull out some sunflowers and plant seeds that would bring more genuine communion with both God and those I truly love and care about every single day.  Like most of us living in this culture, I am overfed and undernourished on so many levels.  My life is cluttered with decorative, but fleeting things that never really fill my deepest needs.  Pretty things that don't really provide any real connection are taking up too much space.  My soul is hungry for some real nourishing food.  I need to intentionally make growing food--both literally and figuratively-- more important than growing flowers, as lovely as flowers are.  Yes, sometimes we have to weed the flowers and make room to grow some food.