Heart Soul Mind Strength

feels so right

Genesis 2: 8-10 “The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden […] Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden […]”

I haven’t written much since the very beginning of June. I’ve been busy buzzing about the garden. I think deeply and have wonderful ideas flowing while I’m moving and doing, but when I sit down to write, my thoughts evaporate. Often, my mind is fatigued from thinking, relaxed from working, and ready for rest anytime my body is still. I will keep trying!

I have loads of pictures of my garden in various stages all finally organized so that I can use them to tell the story of my first gardening (from seed) year and the sweet lessons God is allowing me to see. He is the Gardener of Gardeners and His beautiful and wise complex simplicity is reflected in every living thing; especially His image bearers.

I would like to share thoughts, pictures, and lessons from my first from-seed garden of my life. This year I planned, read about last frost dates for my current zone, read all my seed packets over and over again, started seeds in little trays in the dining room where I can close the doors to keep out my kitty. I selected garden beds and assembled them. I eagerly dreamed, prepared, and made myself wait until a date I thought reasonable to start the ‘doing’ part.

Yes, I did possess plants in pots on my balcony in Korea, but I just tried to keep them alive until winter. I did grow one or two finger sized potatoes and mint, which I enjoyed.

Starting without seed experience, I had to rely upon the abundant information available and use it to form an actionable plan. We arrived at our new duty station in early July 2024, but we traveled more than we were here because we needed to be with our parents as much as possible during this season. I do not regret delaying the real start of the garden one bit.

I did put some different seeds into the wood chipped landscaped beds – giant sunflowers in August, bluebonnet seeds in March or April. It seemed like the soil was inhospitable to the seeds, but I was exercising the ‘just keep planting’ faith that someday something will grow.

Thankfully, this place has four seasons, including snowy winters! I love seasons and dividing the year into manageable sections of time with unique features.

I started parsley 8-10 weeks before I estimated to be able to put them outside because they had the longest germination time of all the seed packets. As it turns out, the parsley was up and basking in the morning sunlight through the dining room window in about half the projected time. I started about 40 seeds sometime in March indoors and planted about10 surviving plants by the time I transferred them to the garden beds. However, those plants are still green and lush as of the middle of July.

This being the first year, I had my garden beds still in boxes until the spring seemed well sprung. I still needed to get ahold of soil because, on principle, I don’t trust the soil on a military base.

I had no place to plant them into until my neighbor gave us about 4-5 bags of soil (1 cubic foot each), and I repurposed a Rubbermaid tote into a garden. It wasn’t the best as the sides were flexible rubber, bowing outward under the soil pressure, and not letting the water go anywhere. I finally bored a hole in it under heavy spring rains so the water could escape near the bottom. That soil was organic and had been outside for a while, so it had much life in it. The plants thrived in it despite the early over hydration due to lack of drainage.

The early ‘how to’ garden lessons were quite academic and reliant on external information running through my processor to mechanically do things required to set it all up. One of our trips to Maine to visit, I found a bag of sprouted little potatoes and brought them home with me. They grew tall and died when I transplanted them to the outside container.

Through a process of careful frequent observation, revelations coming into my mind while I’m near sleep, and marathon days of just doing actions that seem like they need to happen, gardening lessons seem to be infusing directly into my soul at this point. I’m listening to Jess from Roots and Refuge on YouTube regularly to occasionally be able to process my deep, mute garden revere into some human language. Mostly, it feels so instinctual, so deeply ingrained in my human beingness to observe and act according to unspoken signals between the life in the garden and the life in me.

I am formed from the dust of the ground, according to Genesis 2:7. It makes sense that my smallest members would understand how to cultivate life and communicate with the unseen physical biological components of the soil and of the plants.

“Peace I leave with you My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27.)”

When I did massage therapy school almost ten years ago, I thought of how instinctual it is to be able to sense the tension in another human’s muscles and fascia. A deep empathetic flow happens when the nerve endings in my hands focus on the tensions in another human’s muscular system and my brain maps the tension using my body and knowledge of anatomy and physiology as a reference point. I believe that massage is one of the ways humans are meant to carry one another’s burdens and alleviate pain in each other. I was in awe of this strong connectedness. I could communicate safety, relaxation, and pain relief to the client; conversely, the client’s self could subconsciously communicate anxiety, tension, and inner feelings of turmoil with my consciousness. I had to learn to mentally block or redirect unwanted subconscious anxiety and focus on transmitting peace and healing to them. Most of my massages included much prayer over the client because their inner turmoil was so strong that I needed to rely on a greater source of Peace to do my job, I needed that peace Jesus gives.

The connection with the invisible living things that a thriving garden is made of feels even deeper than the connection with another human’s inner pain I felt through massage. Unguarded soul intimacy is generally unwelcome between human hearts due to past pain and distrust. It is rare to find such intimacy even in those who are in close relationship. But, in Christ, there is no veil separating us from God’s heart. He does not hide His desires, His love, His wisdom from us. He already gave EVERYTHING for us and will not withhold any good thing from us. Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him, also freely give us all things?” When I go to serve my role in my garden, I feel what must be an echo from Eden past and a refreshing breeze from the place Jesus is preparing for us.

It is our original place, the garden God planted. It is as if the soil, the plant leaves and stems and fruits and seeds, the pollinators, the sky, the rain, the storms, the dawn, the beaming noon sun, the twilight, and the wind are communicating in loud silence the Word of God – the wonderfulness of the Creator. Of Being. Of I AM.

“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Hebrews 11:3