A Parable

Once upon a time there was dirt. A woman saw the dirt and said, "Oh, joy! Dirt! I shall plant a garden." The woman then went to the market and bought a wagonful of steer manure. She wondered what the difference was between refuse from a steer and refuse from a heifer but she applied the manure to the dirt, anyway.

Once the manure was spread and turned within the soil, the woman made a plan. She drew out a map for how her garden would bring her so much joy. She went to the market and bartered for seeds wherein she planted the seeds in nice, semi-straight rows. She caged and tied up her tomato plants, watered, weeded, and watched.

To her amazement, plants grew. They grew and grew and the woman was happy. She was happy until she realized those plants were weeds. The woman and her children spent many hours pulling the weeds. Later, when nobody could hear, she coaxed her soil to produce vegetables. When this seemed to no avail, she threatened, quickly repented, prayed, sang, and talked to her garden. She believed the garden would grow and be successful.

And it did - with a few interesting twists.

Her favorite vegetable didn't come up. Other vegetables came up spotty. Yet other vegetables made an encore appearance from a previous year but they had mutated. The bush beans she planted were really pole beans and started strangling each other. The bugs ate holes in some of her plants and vegetables. One pumpkin plant grew a yellow pumpkin. Early Girl tomatoes are erroneously named.

The sunflowers she bought grew over 10 feet tall. The carrots grew in deep and sweet. The squash plants were all a mystery to her (because of an earlier disagreement with the garden), and surprised her every day. The jury is still out on the corn whether or not they cross pollinated. She had a record number of green beans. She may also have discovered a new kind of squash and may be named "Queen of the Weird" for the 8th year in a row.

The woman is only halfway through her gardening this season but realizes she has a special garden that already had its own way. Certain seeds were already in the soil before she made her plans for the garden. Other seeds weren't going to take root because the dirt didn't want them. Some seeds the woman gave the soil were so well loved, the soil threw many nutrients into them to make them large and beautiful. The soil compensated for some of the shortcomings by producing more of other vegetables.

As the woman looked across the fruit of her labors, she felt a little disappointment that her plan went awry in certain areas of her garden. On the other hand, she realized how the garden was already starting to sprout its own version of a garden without her guidance. With her guidance and work, the garden became a better garden, although not what the woman had envisioned, but it gave her joy.

And she accepted what the dirt had given her and was glad for the time she got to spend with the garden in its early days.

Who is your garden? How does your garden grow? Is it different from what you envisioned? Are you finding joy in the alternate garden you have been given along with the disappointment of learning the dirt didn't give the same attention to what you wanted from the garden? Are you praying for your garden? Coaxing, nurturing, threatening, singing or talking to your garden? What would you do differently?