Saturday, April 30, 2011

The gardening work of One

The weather in the part of Texas where we live has been very dry, windy and lower humidity and temps than we are used to in the spring. One result has been forest fires. Another has been weekend after weekend that is perfect for working in the yard. No rainy days as an excuse to spend a Saturday lazying around inside.

Both my next door neighbor and I used the opportunity to bring major improvements to our landscaping, though we went about it very differently.

Not to nock my neighbor—his method was low energy output on his part and hi cash output. In just one day, a landscaping crew of 8 guys pulled out all his front bushes and flowers, brought in fresh dirt to build up his beds and installed a beautiful array of plants. The next Saturday they came back digging up grass and putting in underground sprinkling. The next Saturday they replaced the old landscape lights with lights to bring dramatic lighting to the trees and front of his house. The next weekend they built new flower beds in his back yard and installed lighting. The next weekend they replaced all his fence pickets. And the next weekend three guys used a lever to lift his three big landscaping rocks up and put support under them so they stood higher and could be seen better from the street.

Over those same 5 Saturdays and more I worked in our yard. Ever since we moved into this house 18 months ago I had wanted to do something about the brick structures in the front beds that were falling apart. When I pulled them out, I found that no base had been put in under them, which made them lean and topple as the earth moved. I put in base and sand and rebuilt the brick structures. I gave fertilizer to the plants, thinned out plants, pulled out some plants that had been placed in bad spots and moved them to other spots. I trashed some plants that were just too thick. Earlier my son had installed a light to give dramatic lighting—to our address so in case of an emergency it will be able to be seen easily at night. My way of improving the hard was high labor, many hours for one person with some help from my wife periodically and much lower cost than my neighbors. I spent a few hundred dollars, whereas he probably spent many thousands. I also had this opportunity to enjoy getting my hands dirty—I find it to be a wonderful sabbatical from the work I normally do during the week. I complain, but it is a good feeling to have my muscles ache.

This reminds me of the spiritual life and growth. It is possible to go for quick growth that may look good on the outside but takes little effort on one’s part and does not go deep, possibly even meaning pulling some good plants out with the weeds. Then there is the slower work of the Holy Spirit. He does not waste a hurt. He fertilizes, moves around, gets to the foundation of the issue and puts in better base. This is the kind of improvement that is substantive and long lasting providing a certain robustness to one’s spiritual life. When I get inpatient with the slowness of my own growth, remembering the difference in how our two yards were improved is a good image for being patient with the work of the divine gardener.