Ah! New Life!

I have had a WONDERFUL opportunity to tend the earth. After a long, cold winter, I forget how much my spirit is lifted by a spending a day in the yard, and the first few are especially precious. The task at hand was to prepare the vegetable garden for planting.

I'd neglected it in the fall, so there were still tomato cages with dead tomato vines, and the grass that had grown in the fall remained. As I knelt beside the raise bed, I though how perfect - spending the next few hours 'on my knees' - because, certainly that is how tending the earth feels to me: a prayer before the very presence of God!

I pulled out dead plants, I pulled out dead grass, and grass that was trying to sprout. (I left the snowdrops that will bloom in the next week or so - then I'll transplant them to where I'd really LIKE for them to grow!)

I ran my fingers through the soil, searching for crabgrass roots. I stacked tomato cages, and bean poles and envisioned the planting for this year. There will be smaller raised beds within the large frame, for squash and spinach. Another new raised area will become the dedicated asparagus patch, and perhaps rhubarb or strawberries (or both!).

Of course there will be tomatoes - likely more than I can eat (but I think my friends kind of count on that :) ) Beans, perhaps broccoli, and I'm not sure what else we'll try this year. I still have a little time to dream and consider the options.

I catch myself laughing aloud. Consider the scene: there I am, kneeling at the edge of my garden, singing aloud to my ipod - "Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee...." Remember, * I * am the only one hearing the music!! Occasionally, a word or a phrase comes off my hands in sign language! What would the neighbors think....? (I so don't care!)

Ah yes.... a wonderful, wonderful day. Joy and Laughter, hands in the dirt and in the air, heart and soul singing to God. My spirit is ALIVE.... I couldn't be more blessed.