The Joys of Growing Things

Although I grew up “in town,” I spent many a day out in the country.  Our good friends had a farm about 50 miles south, where we often visited.

I’ve had experience gathering eggs, picking corn (and rock), playing around in the hayloft (and falling on my way down the ladder / fracturing my foot 😦 ), having bonfires that reached nearly to the telephone wires, and other great fun that you just don’t find within city limits.

Perhaps this experience “on the land” is part of the reason I love seeing things grow.  I’m delighting in the four plum seedlings that I’ve nursed from pits and that are once again flourishing after their winter dormancy beneath snow-covered pails.

Also, working with residents on our raised gardens out on the patio has become a tradition for me.  It’s fun carefully planning out where the little seeds will be planted.

This planting season, I actually used a tape measure, recently acquired from a conference the other Sisters had attended in Bismarck.

Now, we might actually have strawberries!  I got a call this morning from a friend of St. Anne’s who might be bringing us some extra strawberry plants.

Whether it be spinach, onions, cucumbers, peas, beets, basil, dill or strawberries (our crops this year). there is something sweet and satisfying about cooperating with life’s growing process, whether it be plants in our gardens or people in our lives.

Thanks be to God for the gift of our own lives as well as all the blessings that grow all around us!