Somewhere along the way, the first few lines of John Denver‘s “Garden Song” got stuck in my brain. Everytime I plant, it reminds me that most things worth working for take time. Weird thing is, until writing this post, I thought those initial lyrics were from an old hymn. Dear Reader, when I watched the video and read the actual lyrics, I was blown away. (And not just because I’d had the first few words wrong all these years. It wasn’t “bit by bit,” but “inch by inch.” I thought I knew the way the words went, but I was wrong.)
Last September, Tom and I moved from our “luxury apartment” to a house with a lot more space. We love it! The first time I looked out at the postage stamp backyard with its ten foot rock wall, I knew I wanted it to come alive with simple vines and plants.
During the winter I started looking at pictures of “living walls.” Some of them are amazing, but I know my limitations. This brain can only hold so much new information, and time is always sparse. Still, I thought I had enough of both.
Our rock wall faces east(ish). The wall is about ten feet tall, and there’s less than ten feet between the the wall and our house. The minimal proximity creates odd angles for sunlight to sneak through. Still, after watching the wall for three seasons, it looks like there will be enough light for the carefully selected plants.
Next, I had to learn which plants grow up, and which grow down. And can you believe the 18-letter names some plants have? Not to worry, Dear Reader, I finally figured out that ivy, phlox, and clematis seemed to fit my vision, and be enough to create a living wall.
Tom and I got a great start tucking baby ivy into crevasses. I love seeing their little faces peek out of their snug homes. For now, that’s enough encouragement to keep moving forward.
You spend time on the good earth, watering and nourishing the networks of the living. God’s river is full of water!
Here are a few pics of the living wall adventure so far. I know it doesn’t look like much yet, but I just know, Dear Reader, God’s working on something amazing in the crevasses, and maybe in me, that I can’t see right now. Knowing that is enough.
When our son, James, started kindergarten, I started back to college. For five years our whole family revolved around me pursuing what I believed I was created to do. We juggled schedules, pared back on living expenses, and tried to figure out how to still have game nights when textbooks were sitting in the next room screaming to be read.
Lugging thirty plus pounds of books (no I-Pads in the dark ages) up and down the William Jewell hills year-round, my mantra was “a bigger house for us, college for James and Mary, Europe for me.” On blustery, winter days, with too little sleep, and too many assignments to count, it was enough to keep me going.
The course catalog drove decisions, big and small. Tom and I thought we were making godly ones. Turns out some could have been better. Sometimes I tried to push ahead, others, I drug my feet. (Trust me, postponing College Geology until the summer after graduates “walked,” was not the smartest thing to do. The lowest grade I EVER got was the last one from William Jewell. Ouch!)
Eventually, teaching certificate and diploma in hand, I made my way into the world of education where I thought I was supposed to be. And for years it was enough, until something long dormant started to stir. I’d been too preoccupied with what I THOUGHT was enough, what I BELIEVED was my calling, that I almost missed it.
Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
Dear Reader, I am so excited to watch and see how the Lord is going to infuse His beauty into our very rough rock wall, and bring it to life. Sometimes I get impatient as God is doing similar work in me. Do I regret the years I wasn’t quite on the path the Lord created me for, and it for me? Once in a while.
It’s taken decades, but I am daily amazed at how the Lord was planting and growing things in me, inch by inch, that I would need in order to do what I’ve loved all along, serving Him and His kids, and writing. I just didn’t realize how much. And I never imagined that doing what I love would be enough.
And because we all need a little fun, and something we can tap our toes to, John Denver on The Muppet Show, singing “Garden Song.”
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