Roto-tillers and good gardens

Vast wheat field

Christ Jesus told great parables – metaphors. Many described the Kingdom of Heaven.

One of these stories tells about a farmer planting seeds on different types of soil and the resulting crops – why they did or didn’t grow.

My friend John Imrie has done enough gardening to know that though some soil is bad – hard and un-hospitable, you can use a shovel or a roto-tiller to break up the hardness.

Then you can mix in good soil to amend it, and eventually that soil becomes hospitable for plants.

So our difficult experiences, John noted, can be like the roto-tiller, breaking up the hard places in our hearts. When we add the qualities from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – unconditional love, peace-making, kindness, mercy – we can become the good soil that brings forth abundantly.

John pointed out that just adding the humus and manure on top of hard ground doesn't do it. To transform the soil, to help it become productive, you still have to break up the hard clods and thoroughly mix in the good stuff.

Good black soil and happy spring flowers

If our hearts have grown hard, it’s sometimes a struggle to let the clods of criticism, resentment, or hurt feelings be broken up. Trials and difficulties have a way of encouraging careful self-examination.

When we’re willing to let honest self-examination improve the soil of our attitudes to purity, listening, unselfishness, there’s no limit to the good we can do.

Meeting the challenge of restoration

Nature refreshes my soul.

The 23rd Psalm says as much:

“You make me lie down in lush meadows near quiet pools… You let me catch my breath and then send me in the right direction.”

A heron fishes in a success story

The photo above tells a thousand words of water restored. The heron is finding dinner at the edge of what used to be a dirty barge canal.

Nearly two decades of focused aeration projects along the 16-mile waterway now attract herons, kingfishers, and ducks, as well as pleasure boaters.

People come from miles around to Palos Heights’ Lake Katherine. Recycled from an old gun club situated among rock piles left by the canal builders, Lake Katherine is a tiny jewel. The uninformed would never guess how effectively the waterfalls and lake pump healthy water back into the canal.

A green heron about to stab a tiny fish
in Lake Katherine

It’s an environmental success story that gets little attention.

With planning, care and commitment, slushy lives also can and are being restored to beauty, usefulness, and self-worth.

Patience - embodied

Patience is truly a virtue -- and one we all have.

It grows and blossoms in a love-filled heart.

Here's a great example.

Life - a team sport

Almost-summer is an interesting season.

The heat-absorbing black top warms bare feet as the evening air cools. Boys working together discover how electric circuits can make light bulbs go on and off, and how electricity can make things fly.

Setting up the disk to fly

Boys play baseball on Park District teams. Some get the idea of teamwork, functioning as a team, sooner than others.

Life is kind of a team sport. When the team wins, everyone wins. In our condo association, for example, minor repairs need to happen on the driveway before it can be sealed for the winter. It’ll be more expensive than simply sealing.

But in the long run, a well-maintained driveway will last longer and require less costly maintenance in the future. Because the association has set aside funds for this in the budget, there will be no special assessments. Everyone benefits.

I help my neighbor weed her flowers. Later in the week, she shares with me a delicious dinner she has cooked. Teamwork. Goodness reciprocated.

Supporting your teammates

After the ball game, all the boys on the team help clean up, collecting the bases, gathering paper cups and throwing them in the trash can. Teamwork. Everybody gets to go home sooner.

Life is about helping one another. With appreciation and reciprocating kindness, everyone wins.

"Love" defined by children

An email arrived with these gems defining "love" -- as children see it.

You want unconditional love?

Adopt a puppy!

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired." Terri - age 4

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth." Billy - age 4

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy - age 6

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK." Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss." Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Bobby - age 5

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate." Nikka - age 6

"When you tell someone something bad about yourself and you're scared they won't love you anymore. But then you get surprised because not only do they still love you, they love you even more." Matthew - age 7

"There are two kinds of love. Our love. God's love. But God makes both kinds of them." Jenny - age 4

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday." Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well." Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore." Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night." Clare - Age 5

"Love is when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken." Elaine - age 5

"Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford." Chris - age 8

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day." Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." Lauren - age 4

"Love cards like Valentine's cards say stuff on them that we'd like to say ourselves, but we wouldn't be caught dead saying." Mike - age 8

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." Karen - age 7

"You really shouldn't say I love you, unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot." Jessica - age 8

See if this makes you smile!

The Cowans knew nothing about Youtube when this video was made; they don't even own a computer. They were simply providing some entertainment.

Now they are famous! These life-long musicians have since been hearing from friends all over the country -- who have seen them on YouTube.

They feel God has given them a special gift in their love of music, and they feel compelled to share.




For more about this delightful couple, as written in the Des Moines Register of May 10, CLICK HERE

Looking beneath the surface

The following email arrived with its reminder that the world is full of wonder.

Geode - beauty hidden inside the ordinary

A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one he found a canvas bag containing what appeared to be many hardened clay balls. It was as though someone had rolled clay balls, baked them in the sun, and gathered them in the bag. Intrigued, he took the bag with him.

Strolling along the shore, he idly threw the balls, one at a time, as far as he could into the ocean. He thought little about it, until one of them dropped on a rock and split open at his feet. Inside was a beautiful, precious jewel!

Amazed, the man carefully began cracking open the remaining balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of gems in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. He realized he had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of these balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have had tens of thousand; but he had not seen their worth!

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It may look uninteresting, worn, dull. If it isn't beautiful or sparkling, we probably discount it. Unfortunately, we consider that person less important than someone whose shape or clothes or fame catches our attention.

We may never know the value hidden within. There are treasures in each of us. If we take the time to get to know people, and especially if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to split away and the brilliant gem appears.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. Let’s make the effort to see the people in our world, including ourselves, as God knows them.

Home is where you find it

Robin nest on a porch swing

My parents' neighbors were surprised to find their porch swing had been usurped by enterprising robins.

The nest's location indicates that cats no longer prowl the neighborhood. Rules and regulations pretty much keep pets indoors unless on a leash. Evidently the bird family feels comfortable so near humans as well.

Robins are very sober birds. They are quite serious about finding their worms. They fly low from point A to point B, shortest distance. And they are diligent and attentive parents.

I got this shot with my phone (that sounds funny, doesn't it?). Apparently the three babies had just eaten. They huddled quietly and peacefully.

My prayer for this day is that all children feel the safety, comfort, and attentiveness their Maker intends for them. That especially those in war and strife find peace, safety, and shelter.

Excellent replacement cookie jar

Have you tried to find a cookie jar lately? It isn’t easy! For all practical purposes, they don’t exist in walk-in stores.

About a month ago, my ten-year old grandson and I were horsing around in their kitchen. Between us, we managed to break the cookie jar lid.

As we swept up the shards we agreed we would need to go out together and find a replacement. This wasn’t going to be an on-line fix, but a one-on-one, time together in the car, and searching-the-shelves experience.

The Saturday before Mother’s Day was our outing. Eventually after walking through several stores, we found a canister which could become a cookie jar; on top of that, the colors worked surprisingly well for the kitchen. We had a good time together and, best of all, his mom was delighted with the replacement.

This was a fairly typical expression of love and caring on Mother’s Day.

But what if you don’t have a mom? Or if you don’t have children? The good news is that mothering and fathering can take many forms.

There are a multitude of opportunities to give of ourselves, if we are open to them. Nearly every school needs volunteer tutors. Nearly every community can use volunteers for various services and organizations. There are different ways to express nurturing, guidance, and caring outside the traditional family structure.

If physical contact with children isn't an option, most faith traditions offer meaningful ways to pray for the world's children. Children in need aren't picky about your faith; but they are grateful for whatever blessings your prayers may bring.

“Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation.” (Mary Baker Eddy)

Looking for, and stepping into, opportunities to express fathering and mothering blesses those who need what we have to give, and bolsters our own sense of worth.

This can be done without breaking cookie jars.

Tree climbling

Staying close to the trunk

My grandsons and I walked home from school yesterday.

First they discovered a tiny park with two good climbing trees. Each boy scampered up a tree.

I may be the only person in their lives who knows about tree climbing (other possibly than their mother), and this became a good time to impart some basic information. Such as:

• Stay close to the trunk.
• Make sure a branch is strong enough to hold your weight.
• If a branch is dead, don't use it.
• If you absolutely must use use a dead branch, have somewhere else to go quickly, put as little weight as possible on it as briefly as possible, and stay close to the trunk.

When I was growing up, we all climbed trees, and basic principles were passed from older siblings to younger siblings, from neighbor kid to neighbor kid. And nobody I knew ever fell out of a tree.

If you think about it, these are not bad principles for life:

• Stay close to the trunk. Stay close to what you can trust -- for me that's God -- Love and Truth.
• Make sure a branch is strong enough to hold your weight. Consider thoughtfully where your next step should be.
• If a limb is dead, don't trust it. If other people's opinions pull you away from your basic values, don't trust them.
• If you absolutely must use a dead limb, keep it brief and move on. If the best of two choices isn't comfortable for you, take it and look for a better choice as soon as possible.

Later the boys found lilacs in bloom on the railroad right of way. They picked a small bouquet for their mom. They added redbud blossoms from their tree at home.

Redbuds, jonquil, and one lilac

Looks to me like their love for beauty and thoughtfulness for their mom is keeping them close to what is strong and sturdy in their lives.

The Facebook question

Facebook. Is it a time waster? Or simply a new way to keep in touch in our busy world?

It’s interesting to keep up with friends – one in PA directs plays; another in MA writes novels; a retired English teacher has taken up painting; others in CO and CA travel to interesting places and share their photos; a former Sunday School student ran a race in the mountains and is feeling sad because he didn’t place well.

The photos and activities of the teens and twenty-somethings who have let me be their “friend” amaze and delight and sometimes startle me.

If I know what’s going on, I can send a line of appreciation, encouragement, cheer. Or maybe just pray about the "startling" part.

But tonight when a friend wrote, “I’ve been crying,” I picked up the phone and called. I didn’t find out why she had been crying, but we had a good talk.

The jury is still out on the value of Facebook in my life. But it has gone up a notch on my usefulness scale.

Spring - reminder of new birth

Last week marked the beginning of the bird migration here in northern Illinois. It is also the beginning of spring’s new birth.

Most tree leaves were tiny pale green buds, welcome meals, apparently, for hungry birds making a rest stop.

A few days later surviving buds had become small leaves, providing welcome cover for shy birds – much more difficult to spot now that the branches among which they flitted were no longer bare.

Leaves almost mid-sized
on May 1

As spring yields to summer, those delicate pale leaves will become sturdier, larger, greener. No longer on the breakfast menu, they will provide excellent shade and protection from sun and predators.

Can we compare spring’s new birth to man’s new birth? Jesus told the puzzled Pharisee, Nicodemus, that he had to be born again in order to see God’s kingdom. Not physically born, as the first time, but spiritually re-born.

Spiritual re-birth seems to be a gradual giving up of things that don’t work, in order to find a conversation with our Creator that does work. The new birth is learning to choose the unselfish good, to be dedicated to a cause outside ourselves, to hope in good that we cannot see, and to love universally without expecting something in return.

That would be asking a lot if we had to transform quickly like tree buds. We don’t. But, though there is no time-frame, I’ve found that the sooner I make choices that honor spiritual ideas over material things, the happier life is.

Participating in the new birth is another opportunity to enjoy the journey.