The longer I farm, the more I learn that farming has much more to offer us than good food. There are so many lessons to be found in the earth. It's comes with challenges and opportunities. Many rewards and pains. Thorns and roses. Slugs and Dahlias.
My first dahlia bloom this season. Isn't she lovely!
The funny thing about this season so far is that despite our hard work and best efforts, our harvest with many enterprises has been less than desired. But something happened in the midst of this feeling of scarcity. I opened my eyes and looked around me. The things that we planned and sowed have not done as planned. The seeds that we did not sow, the ones that self sowed from the previous year, the wild things, are abounding. Just look at the zinnias in my garden. I didn't plant a single seed.
Zinnias, zinnias, zinnias!!!
Sometimes despite our best efforts things fail. We fail. Do we forgive ourselves when that happens? Do we allow others the oppotunty to fail? Do we extend grace?
Today I'm looking around, and everywhere I look I see the grace of God. In a flower I didn't plant. A seed I didn't sow. Blackberries wild in the woods. Queen Anne's lace on the roadside. Invasive herbs that turn out to be the best filler in a bouquet. And I'm so thankful.
And of course this grace transcends so much more than flowers and dirt. It goes straight to our soul.