{"id":720,"date":"2024-07-20T22:42:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T21:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=720"},"modified":"2024-07-20T22:42:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T21:42:58","slug":"how-does-your-garden-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=720","title":{"rendered":"How Does Your Garden Grow?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reflection #86 (7th July 2024 at Essex Church \/ Kensington Unitarians)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few weeks \u2013 on those rare days when the weather\u2019s been neither too hot nor too wet \u2013 I\u2019ve been engaging in quite a bit of therapeutic gardening. As many of you know, the first half of this year has been quite full-on for me, and as a result my little garden has been sadly neglected \u2013 just at the time of year when it\u2019s most important to keep on top of things. Everything was growing away so vigorously in springtime \u2013 and I didn\u2019t have the capacity to give it the care and attention it needed \u2013 after a winter and spring of unusually wet weather the growth was especially rampant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I found myself standing at the back door a few weeks ago, surveying the scene, and asking myself: where do I begin!? It was a bit of a mess. So many of my favourite plants were smothered in bindweed and looking very sorry for themselves. Others had been lost to frost, or waterlogged through the cold, rainy, winter months. An old hosepipe and a broken ladder had been left laying on the \u2018lawn\u2019 (I had to put \u2018lawn\u2019 in inverted commas as it has long consisted more of weeds than grass) and the grass had grown right over them. There were snails and slugs as far as the eye could see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

At first glance, it was all too easy to fixate on what was wrong with the garden, to feel somewhat overwhelmed with the scale of the task in hand, if I was going to get back on top of things. And I don\u2019t want you to get the wrong idea here \u2013 I\u2019m not even aiming for a tidy, manicured garden \u2013 that was my dad\u2019s preferred style, but he mostly conceded to my preferences at the point when I took over the lion\u2019s share of maintenance, some years ago now. My garden is managed for wildlife \u2013 and tomatoes, of course \u2013 and though the local foxes seemed happy that my absence left them with a comfortable hideout, I feel I was letting the frogs, grasshoppers, bees, moths, and butterflies down. The little pond had silted up, and all my carefully-selected plants for pollinators were overgrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the little plot of land I\u2019ve been given to tend. And as I said earlier in the service \u2013 even if we aren\u2019t lucky enough to have a physical garden of our own \u2013 we each have our own metaphorical \u2018plot of land to tend\u2019 \u2013 as Wayne Muller put it, \u2018the garden of our life\u2019. In this life we\u2019ve been given, we find ourselves situated in a particular time and place, we have a certain sphere of influence, a setting in which we might just have some power to make a difference. When we look at the big picture, the state of the world these days, we can so easily feel disheartened or even hopeless. The problems facing humanity (and indeed all the other forms of life with whom we share this planet) seem quite overwhelming. There are so many issues for us to care about; it doesn\u2019t seem possible to fully engage with them all at once and give all these worthy causes the attention they deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what happens if we draw back? If we accept we can\u2019t do it all \u2013 we can\u2019t save the world single-handed \u2013 let\u2019s consider what is uniquely ours to do\u2026 What is contained in our \u2018plot of land to tend\u2019? What is included in \u2018the garden of our life\u2019? What work are we called to do? What issues are we going to actively engage with? What community are we committed to showing up for, and nurturing? Who are the people that are ours to love? To echo our weekly prayers: How are we going to use our unique gifts in the service of love, justice, and peace?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if we might learn from drawing a few parallels between literal and metaphorical gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off: I feel lucky to have a garden at all \u2013 it\u2019s only a little plot behind my small terraced council house in East London \u2013 but I realise what a gift it is to have a garden at all in this city, especially in social housing, and to have a little bit of free time in which to nurture it. I don\u2019t want to waste that gift. I really want to make the most of the opportunity I\u2019ve been given \u2013 to create something beautiful. And what about our metaphorical garden \u2013 the garden of our lives? Well, I reckon it does us good to remember that life itself is a gift, and an opportunity, and ground ourselves in a practice of gratitude. Perhaps it will help us to switch from a focus on life\u2019s burdens, and the heaviness of responsibility, towards a feeling of openness and possibility. Here we are \u2013 we\u2019ve been given this one wild and precious life \u2013 and none of us know how long we\u2019ve got left \u2013 so what are we going to do with it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing we need to consider, when we stand at the back door and look out on our garden, survey our little \u2018plot of land\u2019, is that there\u2019s a kind-of \u2018givenness\u2019 or \u2018thrownness\u2019 to it. We have to take it as we find it. We are rarely working with a blank canvas. Generally, we will have inherited our garden from someone else and, unless the previous tenant was Alan Titchmarsh or Carol Klein, it\u2019s unlikely to come to us in tip-top condition. Maybe there are established plants that someone else left behind \u2013 that could be quite promising \u2013 or perhaps the soil is riddled with bindweed roots \u2013 oh dear. If you have moved into a new build the soil might be poor or altogether absent \u2013 just a yard full of builders\u2019 rubble or rock-hard clay \u2013 in which case you\u2019ll need to do some groundwork, and improve the soil, though it might take time. Some things we can change. But some \u2013 like the aspect of our garden, the way it faces \u2013 we cannot. And the same goes for the garden of our lives. We were born into conditions we did not choose. Somehow we have to work with the situation in which we find ourselves. Hopefully, over the long haul, we\u2019ll be able to make things better, incrementally improving our lot. I wonder what small step you might be able to take, right now, to improve the conditions in the garden of your life to help it flourish? (As an aside, I can\u2019t help thinking of our new government, and the garden that they have inherited\u2026 I hope they <\/em>are asking themselves some of these same questions about our collective flourishing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A further consideration is that gardeners have choices to make \u2013 discernment about what will and won\u2019t be included in your little plot of land \u2013 and, disappointingly, I can confirm that there are only so many plants you can fit in to your garden, no matter how hard you wish it was otherwise. There\u2019s a gardener\u2019s saying about the importance of choosing \u2018the right plant for the right place\u2019 \u2013 some thrive in sun and some in shade \u2013 some need good drainage and others \u2018need their feet wet\u2019. Similarly, we need to make wise choices about the garden of our lives. We are finite creatures. There are only so many hours in the day. We can\u2019t do it all. So we have to ask ourselves: Where will we put our energy? What causes or projects will we take on? Which relationships will we invest in? This is likely to require some hard decisions as there will be causes, projects, and people we care about but haven\u2019t got the capacity to engage with. They\u2019re outside the boundaries of our garden. And that phrase \u2018the right plant in the right place\u2019 is helpful here, for me, as it suggests the need to play to our strengths. It is wise to honour the diversity of our characteristics \u2013 our gifts and needs \u2013 our attractions and aversions. What is \u2018right\u2019 for me might not be \u2018right\u2019 for you (and vice versa). And that harks back to the message of our flower communion, doesn\u2019t it? In community we can appreciate and celebrate that every one of us makes our own unique and beautiful contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s one last parallel I want to draw. Gardens typically take a lot of consistent attention and care to maintain \u2013 there\u2019s always watering, feeding, staking, and pruning to be done \u2013 and you must be responsive to wild weather conditions, rampaging weeds, creeping fungus, marauding slugs. And \u2013 as I discovered this spring \u2013 if you are waylaid for a few months it can all get away from you. A garden is not a static thing. It evolves and transforms through the seasons and over the years. Part of the fun of gardening is to try out new things to see what thrives (and what does not). And so it is with the garden of our life, this plot of land that is ours to tend, for all too brief a time. If we consistently give our time, attention, and care to those things that matter most, then there\u2019s every chance that by our living we will have added to the sum total of beauty and goodness in this world. We will have done our bit, however modest it might seem, and this planet will be a better place for us having lived on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, by way of encouragement, I will repeat those words from Wayne Muller one last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We must plant what we love in the garden of our life.
As the Tao Te Ching insists, our centre will heal us.
When we attend to what is loving and beautiful,
we are brought forward into our most exquisite manifestation.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May it be so for the greater good of all. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection by Jane Blackall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An audio recording of this sermon is available:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nhttps:\/\/www.kensington-unitarians.org.uk\/pod2011\/KU_jane.blackall_hybrid_sermon_07.07.24.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n