Hannah Coulter

I have discovered an immense appreciation for my flowers this Spring. My bulbs have brought me joy and I have found a new love in being able to cut back flowers and bring them into the home. They are beautiful, fragrant and symbolic. I have enjoyed the earth and gardening for food for a while but through pregnancies and small children I forgot why I love it. Canning had become a chore, an unnecessary evil because I can get salsa and pizza sauce at the store. My heart is being softened once again and my hands are being called back to the earth. Yet, it is different this time, beauty is what is beckoning me, not duty. The obsessive researcher in me just got 5 books about zone 5 flowers. I will create beauty around my home because I feel beauty in the home and inside myself. There is PLEASURE in this!!! I also am looking forward to growing food this year and I am remembering my appreciation for true nourishment. I weeded my flowers this morning and I realized that my garden is going to become a part of my quiet time. I love to get up in the early quiet and reflect, read and pray. The garden is a natural extension of this. As I was weeding this morning my Spirit felt alive and thankful. It is no small coincidence that I have been reading Hannah Coulter this week. In this Wendell Berry novel, Hannah is an old woman reflecting on her many years. She loves her life, land and community in a way that is foreign to me because her understanding is her life. The most striking thing is her thankfulness for all of it, the joy, pain, and grace of God through the land and her community. I have had a buck the system attitude for a while (and am continually repenting for this, as it is rooted in my pride). To try to create sustainability as a reaction is a slap in the face to sustainability. It is a gift from the Father and I am tired of attempting to be "different". There is joy in work and providing for our family. and working with my garden out of a spirit of gratitude is a new understanding and one I am only getting a glimpse of. "God teach me to be truly thankful". Today, I am thankful for hot pink tulips swaying in a gentle morning breeze, hot pink tulips shouting at me to slow down and enjoy them this morning. God is good to me, better than I ever will deserve.