LysmachiaMoon's blog: Reflections on being called to garden

I've been thinking a lot about this pursuit we call "gardening," reading a lot of blogs here on site, reading books by gardeners, and just generally trying to understand what my stumbling efforts toward some elusive green goal really means to my life and how it all fits together. I've come to the tentative conclusion that, for me, "gardening" is not a hobby. It's not something I do to escape, to divert myself. It's not a competitive thing (I can grow bigger gooseberries than you!). It's not even something I long to share with people (although I do wish I had more gardening friends!). For me gardening is a way of life, a philosophy--a tao, as the Chinese would say, a vocation or calling as the Christians might. I am called to garden. I realize that my whole life, from childhood on, I've been drawn to the natural world. My mom said that the first time she took me for a walk outside in the early spring, (I was only a month old!) I was quiet in her arms until she passed under a budding tree. Then I arched up in her arms and reached for the branches, making little baby coos of joy. She said she knew then I was going to be a gardener.

Many people garden. Many people get immense joy from it. But only a select few are passionate gardeners. And those I think are called. I've debated what drives us: the need to control? to achieve some sort of perfection? selfishness? competitiveness? Probably a little of all those things and none of those things. "A little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing." I think most of us would list mundane reasons: It relieves stress, it makes me happy, it keeps me active. But I wonder what is behind that reason? Why? Why does it make you calm, happy, at peace? How can a pursuit that often involves some pretty uncomfortable labor achieve that?

I put it to you that, no matter what your spiritual beliefs, we garden to give back. Our gardens are a gift to god, whatever you conceive that to be. We are given this life, we are given this plot of dirt, no matter how small, and our better natures tell us "Do good." Make something good here. Something beautiful, something bountiful. Bring beauty into a world of ugliness and sorrow. We are called to a special form of "Holy Orders." We are called to "Green Orders."

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