THE GARDEN...AND THE RICH LIVES IT FOSTERS

I have just returned home from a visit with a friend in his garden. It's been a beautiful morning in many ways already. I've know Gary and Lee for several years now and I must say all of it has been a pleasure for me. I see Lee once a week in the salon and always look forward to our time together. I've mentioned her before...she's the one who tells her husband often on her return home to not ask what she and I talked about because she has no way of explaining what I was talking about :) She has listened to many of the drastic changes in my thinking brought on by the drastic paradigm shifts that I have stumbled through over the past few years.

But this morning was about the garden. They live on a beautiful piece of property and Gary has developed many wonderful garden spaces all around it. His mind rarely ever rests from creating nor does his body. And in light of Gary's physical challenges it's nothing but inspiring. Since I have known him he has had a couple heart attacks...a case of shingles the doctors said was worse than they had ever seen, so bad it has left much nerve damage in it's wake and now he is in the midst of recovering from the effects of a pulmonary embolism. With his limp and all, he marches on in a way that is nothing but inspiring. Lee, his wife, sometimes sees it as something other though :) He told me a story today about how he often talks with God while he is out in his garden. One such recurring conversation is expressing his desire in regards to falling asleep to this world. He would love for it to happen while he is in his garden. Well, awhile back he had a fall in his compost pile and because of all the things that he faces on a daily basis with his body it was a struggle for him to get up. He said he just kept sinking deeper in the pile the more he tried to free himself. While in this difficult spot he said to the Lord...."This isn't how I had it pictured in my mind.' I got a good chuckle out of that as did he.

Both he and Lee volunteer in helping the poor through a local charity that daily feed and offer other services to the less fortunate. Gary even mows the lawns of some neighbors just to help them out in their busy lives. Lee has served on the board of a Restorative Justice organization helping women transition back into society after spending time in prison. This organization is also helping the courts here in Missouri see in many situations that there is a better alternative to just locking someone up and removing them from their families that need them. I could go on because there is more but I think you get the point.

Gary and Lee give back out of the richness that fills their lives...and their faith in God and what he has given them is what inspires that generosity. But I get the sense that their garden, and God's larger natural world, and what it speaks to them about creating some beauty in this world that is often a harsh environment for people to live in, has a big part to do with it also.

That is not Gary's and Lee's garden in the picture above but it gives you some sense of what many places in their garden feel like.