Eve

The weather is getting warmer where I live, and today found me out in the garden after church. There were peas to pick, weeds to pull, lettuce to transplant (it was getting crowded) and early tomatoes to plant.

I'm a bad gardener in the winter months. My plants are lucky if they get watered once a week, and to be honest, only the hearty ones pull through. But I've been better about it during the past few weeks, and today I had the joy of finding four rosebuds ready to burst on the old, gnarly rose bush in my weedy side yard. There'll be a bouquet of cut roses in my kitchen by Wednesday, I predict. And the calla lily patch - also a stalwart survivor of the weedy east side of the house - is resurrecting itself. Just in time for Lent, funnily enough.

I like spring. But there's something odd about living in this Mediterenean climate, where everything starts blooming and blossoming as we head into the Great Fast. In other parts of the world, I think, the flowers come out for Easter.

I can't pull any great meaning from my garden's odd sense of timing. But I think gardening will be a big part of my Lenten experience this year. We moved into this rental house two years ago, and each spring, I get a bit better at cultivating the plants in the yard. I'm not anywhere close to a good gardener yet, but more fresh herbs show up in my cooking, more flowers in my house, and more veggies in my pot as the years go by.

Surely that's some sort of metaphor for the Christian life.

I'll think about it more this Lent, as I weed, water and plant. And I'll let you know if I learn anything.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

p.s. How are your gardens growing, out there in Bloggityville?