Yin and Yan

What is the nature of God, is something I have been pondering the first week of February. The story of the creation speaks of God giving judgement for the wickedness of people on earth, but at the same time providing grace and mercy in the Ark. The flood is a universal epic passed down to us from varying civilizations including the Egyption, Sumerians, Indi, and China and many more. Nature gives us the Four seasons and weather that provide trials, opportunities and and threats to the gardener. Conversations among fellow allotment tenants inevitably revert to grumblings of too much rain, too hot, too cold, damaging storms and so on. These contrasts help us to understand the nature of our creator, if the climate and weather were perfect we would not seek to know the true nature of the God. So we wrestle with the days of blessing versus the days of curses.

I did a lot of cursing fixing the shed roof, it’s dirty and awkward work with your body being at weird positions and angles. Efficiency at the allotment requires me to have my tools stored neatly, limiting damage and loss of tools. Spring is on it’s way, excitement and great expectations await to be experienced when nurtured seeds start to germinate. Greenhouse glass panels need replacing and the door needs fixing, tasks that have been weighing heavy on my mind. With food arriving at supermarkets packed and ready to eat we forget the toil of the farmers to nurture these resources for us. Growing my food on my allotment continually challenges me to embrace the struggle for survival. Life-death, day-night, rain-drought.

Being in the moment is often the only option for survival. Tragedy and disappointment can be so severe that thoughts of the future overwhelm. The question is not why did the wind blow of the roof sheet off, it did and I have to fix it. Maintaining a steady flow of emotions through the whole year lessens the chance of losing inspiration when the ‘challenging’ or boring tasks need to be undertaken. The garden helps us to be well rounded individual: physically , spiritually and mentally through multitasking. The gardener is surprised with inspiration from the creator during challenging periods of gardening, as well as during the harvest.