The Summer Garden Begins

Last year my little garden lay fallow. I was not deliberately following an Old Testament teaching but a logical reason since I expected to be uprooted myself any day. But here I happily stay, and now the lovely weather calls the hoe, the shovel and me out to play. My mind gets lost as I garden, as I reverie about the analogies between people and plants. It had been seven years since my little garden has not been busy growing summertime pleasures and what a nice soil I have. The year of rest did it good, and I saw enough lovely, squiggling earthworms to prove it. I thank Jacob for his enjoyment of working outside and doing the first of the soil turning. Little by little I have done the rest. I thank the wild strawberries and violets for doing a great job keeping the soil intact, but now they now have been pruned back to make way for the invited summer guests, the ones that will bear luscious fruit. Soon a few tomato plants will find a home there and cucumber tendrils will wind around makeshift trellises. Those are must haves, but I will find a few other plants to strike my fancy that are sure to bring joy as I watch them grow. It is said, "One is closer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth."