This probably sounds like an odd combination, but I’ve been pondering beans, butterflies and cosmos these days. All are abundant in my garden and yard. The vegetable garden is in full harvest mode—beans, peppers, tomatoes, kale, dill, basil. And then there are all the herbs just outside my back door—sage, oregano, thyme, garlic chives, mint and lemon balm. They each bring a delicious spark of fresh picked goodness to the meals I prepare. For each of these gifts of the abundance of the earth, I am grateful.
Angie Pierce-Jennings led a Prayer Experience recently using a prayer from John Philip Newell’s book Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter. The reading she chose was from Newell’s Thursday morning prayer. In part, Newell prays: “You are the life-flow of creation’s rivers, the sap of blood in our veins, earth’s fecundity, the fruiting of trees, creatures’ birthing, the conception of new thought … All of these are of you, O God, and I am of you.” The Scripture for reflection is from the prophet Isaiah: 58:11: “You shall be like a watered garden, like a deep spring whose waters never fail.”
Newell uses the word fecundity quite often in his writings. In fact, the first time I came across it, I had to look it up. It’s not a word I use in my normal, everyday language. Fruitful, lush, fertile, luxurious and prolific—those are the words Webster’s Dictionary uses to define it. As I listened again to Newell’s words and the prayer chant for the day, that word reminded me of my own garden, both literally and spiritually.
This morning I picked green beans AGAIN. It’s something I’ve done since I was a child growing up on a farm with a huge garden. I remember helping my mother wash the beans numerous times to check them over and make sure there were no blemishes. Then we would move to the front porch, with bowls of beans beside us and bowls on our laps into which we dropped the freshly snapped beans. I was taken back to those moments this morning as I sat on my deck snapping beans. While it can be a tedious chore, there’s a rhythm that I find comforting and peaceful. Pick up a handful of beans, snap, snap, snap. Drop them into the bowl. Pick up another handful; snap, snap, snap; drop. And fecundity comes to mind. All of these beans, tedious chore though they may be, are gifts of the Creator.
The tiger swallowtail butterflies in my flower beds enjoy the fecundity of the garden phlox, the swamp milkweed and the butterfly bush. I’ve been watching them for the past several days—flit from flower to flower, turning in dance-like movement around each flower, filling up on the delightful nectar that is embedded deep within each opening. They appear to delight and rejoice in all the glorious richness of each flower until they’ve had their fill and fly away on a breeze to another to begin the dance all over again. On rare occasions I have seen them resting, wings unfurled in the evergreens that border the yard. And it is my turn to delight in the beauty of these magnificent creatures—the stillness they find, the pattern of color in their wings that brings gratitude to my heart and soul. And this too is a gift of the Creator.
The cosmos flowers are mostly from seed dispersed from last year’s plantings. I decided this year to just let them grow where they sprouted. So my garden is dotted with their luxurious lacy foliage and their bright colored petals that sway in the summer breezes. It probably looks a bit disjointed to a perfectionist gardener, but it reminds me of an English cottage garden where the veggies and flowers can be tucked in among one another. For all are gifts of the Creator.
During my reflections of our prayer time, I was reminded of all these gifts, all this fecundity that is evident all around at this time of the year. A rich lushness of fresh food and fresh beauty to behold is there for us if we slow down and take the time to see, to enjoy, to be blessed by the gifts. And I thought about how my life is so intertwined with all this abundance of food, flowers and every creature that is part of my small corner of the earth. Without any one of them, my life would be less than, for each is a gift of the Creator. We are all part of that wondrous Garden, that place and blessing of our God. All of these apparently small things—beans, butterflies and cosmos—as well as all the grand elements too numerous to mention—are woven together to make us who we are as children of the Divine, the Holy One, Holy Three. “All of these are of you, O God, and I am of you.”
Be open to the fecundity of the earth and within your own spirit. They are woven together as blessings of the Eternal, shaping us to go forth to be witness to the wonder and the richness that lies within and around each one of us.
—Rose Blank, Prairiewoods volunteer