“For all things there is a time … a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted” (Eccl. 3:1-2).

Certain things must be done in their proper season. I guess that’s one of the reasons there is the saying, “strike while the metal is hot.” Certain times in life seem to simply get busier, not necessarily in a negative way, but in a positive. Spring is seasonably and naturally an active time. Nature is waking up again, rising again, life is showing forth again. New green is bursting forth, bright colors are shining, and the birds are busy and singing.

My fingers have been away from the keyboard for a few reasons, one of them is that they have been digging in the earth.

Holy week and Pascha are such a bright and life-giving season in the Liturgical calendar. Whenever they fall late, like this year, to me it feels like you tumble right into the season when you must plant a garden, if you plant gardens, that is. Spring is the time for planting and sowing. The rule of thumb here in Colorado is to start planting a garden in earnest around Mother’s day. Most likely, the threat of frost is done (on the front range of Colorado). But it is Colorado after all, so you can never be 100 percent certain. If you want nice red tomatoes, then you gotta get them in the ground in early May so that, hopefully, a seasonable harvest comes.

Honestly, I like it best when holy week and Pascha fall in mid to late April. Somehow then I don’t feel as tumbled along. As a priest, holy week and Pascha are very intensive. They take a lot of my energy. In a very good way. All I do that week is centered specifically on the services of the church. There is a lot to do. Thank God.

Pascha in early May means – jump from Pascha right into getting the garden ready! Some side work also came up for me right after Pascha, side work is nice for a priest in a small(ish) parish (I do light construction/remodeling). It means a little extra income. I still haven’t figured out how to get around the whole money system thing, so for now I have to live with it. Sometimes you just have to take the side work as it comes, it is nice when it comes in a not so busy season but that is not in my control.

Have all the desires and plans you may want, sometimes an unseen curve ball comes flying in. During the third week of Paschal Tide I got laid out by some sickness. I lost my voice for a few days. Even illness is a blessing. You gotta rest, like it or not. So I got a little rest after all. And now, behold, May is almost done.

That seasonable window of time for getting specific vegetables and flowers in the ground is just about closing. I’m not the best gardener but I enjoy it. I’m still learning. I like getting my hands into the earth. Maybe there is a primeval resonance between the body and the earth. “You will eat your bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the earth from which you were taken; because you are earth, and you will depart into the earth” (Gen. 3:19). Here is the glory of man! I am of earth, at least a part of me. I am earth enlivened with spirit. “The earth to which I will return is ready to receive me” (St. Dimity of Rostov). Earth, death, and life.

This year I tried, with relative success, to grow a few plants from seeds. I’m really not very well set up for it. I think a small greenhouse would be very helpful. I’ve gotta say, its very convenient to get already started plants from the local greenhouse-nursery. But it is amazing to plant such a tiny thing as a seed into ground and watch it become a sprout and hopefully a full grown plant. “The Kingdom of God is as if a man would scatter seed on the ground, and then go to sleep. Night and day, whether he sleeps or rises, the seed springs up and grows, even if he does not know how. For the earth bears fruit: first the blade comes, then the head, then the full head of grain. But when the fruit if ripe, at once the man pulls out his sickle , because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29). Such a tiny and very unnoticeable thing, drop it and you will probably lose it, grows into a potentially large plant that will give both fruit and beauty. The early sprouts are fairly delicate, too much heat, too much cold, not enough light and water, and they can easily wither. But they grow at their own pace, they mature according to their own nature and season. A pace and season that is much out of your control. “Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and later rain. You also should be patient” (James 5:7-8). It is incredible how many spiritual principles are woven into creation all around us. It is indeed with great intent and purpose that the seed acts the way it does. God made it to remind us of deeper and everlasting things. “In your patience win your souls” (Lk. 21:19).

“Amen, Amen, I tell you; unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit! Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life” (John 12:24-25). Life in this world is a single seed. Many try to lock it away and keep it safe. But only when the seed is buried in the earth, seemingly lost and gone, only then is it given the power to truly live. In the earth it is transformed; in the darkness of the soil, it is given new life. “Even what you sow is not made alive unless it dies first. What you sow, you do not sow in the shape that it will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind. But God gives it a body of its own …This is comparable to the resurrection of the dead: something is sown in corruption but raised in incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:36-38, 42). I am not only earth but I am a seed too. I am being sown and, hopefully, transformed by the grace of God.

Not only that, but the Kingdom of Heaven is also like a seed on the earth. Sometimes is seems so small and easily overlooked. But it will grow, and is growing, and will be the greatest of trees. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field. It is indeed smaller than all other seeds, but when it grows, it is the biggest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air can come and find shelter in its branches” (Matt. 13:31-32). As a seed takes time to germinate in the ground and grow into a healthy plant, so the Kingdom of Heaven must be tended in the soil of my heart. It takes time to grow in me. But patience is worth it. Nothing of value is acquired cheaply or quickly.

“‘Weeds,’ I prompted him to keep talking, ‘To me gardening has always meant weeding when I’d much rather be doing something else.’ ‘When people are down on their knees weeding,’ Dusty laughed gently, ‘They think of only weeds and never of flowers. I like to grow flowers, not weeds. But if I’m growing flowers I must deal with the weeds. So I don’t mind doing that’” (From, To End All Wars, by Ernst Gordon). To grow flowers you have to deal with weeds. Don’t get discouraged or overwhelmed by the weeds. They are not the end point but you have to deal with them if you want a garden. The goal is to grow flowers, fruits, and veggies; ultimately the heavenly flowers and fruit of the virtues. But you also have to know what is a weed and what is a flower. You have to at least have the understanding to discriminated between the two. Without that knowledge then both are pulled up indiscriminately. That’s not very productive for gardening because then you are left with a dirt patch. And that’s not very encouraging or profitable. The ability to identify weeds is important to gardening but it is not the primary point of gardening, and so it is with the garden of the heart.

In this world weeds also try to infest the Kingdom of Heaven, the Church. Knowing wheat from tares is important. Also, it should not surprise us that in this age there are tares among the wheat. May the Lord keep us from being tares. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. While people slept, his enemy cam and also sowed weed grass among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprang up and brought forth fruit the weeds also appeared. The slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did this darnel come from? The man said to them, ‘An enemy has done this’” (Matt. 13:24-27). The Lord permits the weeds to be because, in this case, pulling them up could uproot the wheat. Nevertheless, at the harvest the weeds are gathered and burned and the wheat is taken to the barn. There is nothing abiding about weeds. But the wheat of the Kingdom will be forever. For now, it is very important to know how to discern the weeds from the wheat.

All things are God’s. The Holy Trinity made all things. The sun, the earth, the rain, the seed. All things. We take what is His and with His blessings create a garden and enjoy the fruit and beauty. But it is all from Him. So in the spiritual life, it takes something from us. Preparation, planting, watering. Yet, “Neither the one planting, nor the one watering is anything: only God makes it grow” (1 Cor. 3:7). Nevertheless, with God’s blessing, let us put our hands into the earth and scatter the seed, hoping and knowing that it is the Lord Who is the Master of the harvest. “Let us indeed fear the Lord our God, who gives us the early and later rain according to the season of the fullness of the ordinance of the harvest” (cf. Jer. 5:24).

Patiently, don’t hurry

Tread firmly, earth,

This path of soil.

Build each step,

Temporal to eternal.

Whispering emerald trees,

Forests growing fair,

Upraised hands, blue sky,

Deep roots, hidden places,

Truth and beauty meet

Far from bustling masses.

Still now, quietly,

Falls my mortal step,

Passing, moving,

Finding, the unmovable;

Passing symbol to reality,

Face to face

Flows the path

Undaunted, one end,

New creation, regeneration.