Returning To The Garden

 

 

 

A friend reminded me that it was time to garden. She was looking forward to it because then, she said, I would start to write again. Her comment made me wonder if there is a growing season for writers, and if it returns like the seasons of the year.  

 

 

Last week, I went to the garden center to be inspired even though it is much too early to plant, but the seeds were there in the bright little packets tempting me.. The perfect blooms on the envelopes cried out, “Buy me!” Plant me!” I promise to bloom and grow.” And so I did. I bought Morning Glories, Moonflowers, Green Zinnias, and Hollyhocks.  They came home with me, promising to fill my scrawny, too-shady beds with lush plants in just a few months. All I have to do is to start the tiny seeds indoors in one of those makeshift “greenhouse nurseries” that promise me I can nurture seeds to sproutlings who will develop and grow into 70 healthy infant plants. I wonder if it is all true.

Just like I wonder if I will return to writing on the regular weekly (or daily) schedule I once had. Oh, there are these bursts of inspiration and if I quiet myself I can make it happen. A gardener has to work diligently for the plants to grow from seed. It will take time to get those tiny seventy cups filled with soil, the seeds dropped in, identified, watered, watched. Eventually I will need to move them outside to let the sprouts “harden” and get used to the natural elements. I will move them to get just enough sun, but not too much sun. And I will have to pluck out the weaklings. I will have to wait and wonder if there will be any success. Oh, what have I done! I said I was finished with gardening – too little sun, too much clay in the soil, too little effort. And now I find myself returning to hope again.

Writing is not so different. I have to be inspired. A comment by a friend, an observation in nature, words written by other “real” writers can offer seeds for thought. And yes, many words must be plucked out because they are weak or poorly arranged. The right punctuation, like the right fertilizer or amount of sunshine, is critical for words to take on meaning.  But the idea must begin with strong roots in a fertile and well-tended mind, where there is space to grow and develop into a garden of words that makes sense to the writer and changes the reader.

This returning season of spring bulges with emerging growth. A turning, if you will, from the cold bleakness of winter into buds and blooms and resurrection. Every morning the birds are a little louder, a little earlier, calling us to the warmer, longer days. Little by little we witness a new, unfolding season of growth.

The question becomes, “Will we emerge? Will we grow and develop? Will we bloom?”

Joel 2:12-14 offers encouraging words. “Yet even now," declares the LORD, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness.