Miracles
Everything is fascinating! That’s one of the greatest gifts of childhood. Everything is new, strange, intriguing. Everything invites exploration and tickles the imagination. Childhood is a time to enjoy, to relish and to play in the physical world. It's a time before “No! Bad! Evil!”.
Childhood is a Garden of Eden, a paradise uncorrupted by that damned perverted religious teaching that the physical world is evil and to be shunned and avoided in preparation for a spiritual world.
I used to lie on my back and watch the clouds float by and let my imagination find shapes and animals and fantasy creations. I watched birds and dreamed and yearned for the ability to fly. Helping plant a garden was the opportunity to watch miracles.
Over the years I misplaced some of that wonder. The miraculous lost some of its luster and became more ordinary.
When my children were young, I used to thrill in their questions and their attraction to the natural world. Through them I had the chance to relive some of my youthful lust and passion for the universe.
While finishing college I worked a night shift and would get home about six in the morning. Before going in to shower and get ready for the day’s classes, I would walk to the backyard to check on six tomato plants. The fascination wasn’t as strong as it had been twenty-some years earlier but it was alive and healthy.
Several times I have raised egg plant. I don’t particularly like egg plant. I’ve eaten it only twice in my life but it’s such a miracle. I enjoy watching a deep royal purple fruit with a smooth sheen develop from nothing. It’s a miracle!
This afternoon I begin the master gardener program. For the next 13 weeks on Tuesday afternoons, I’ll take part in a series of three hour classes. Why? To sow the seeds of miracles; to recapture more of the wonder and mystery of childhood; to roll and revel and relish in the natural world.
I’ve learned that “as we sow, so shall we reap”. The more I invest myself in life, the richer my life becomes. I’ll not plant only fruits, vegetables and flowers. I’ll plant the seeds of a happy and content life as an old man – a young, and perhaps childish, old man.
Childhood is a Garden of Eden, a paradise uncorrupted by that damned perverted religious teaching that the physical world is evil and to be shunned and avoided in preparation for a spiritual world.
I used to lie on my back and watch the clouds float by and let my imagination find shapes and animals and fantasy creations. I watched birds and dreamed and yearned for the ability to fly. Helping plant a garden was the opportunity to watch miracles.
Over the years I misplaced some of that wonder. The miraculous lost some of its luster and became more ordinary.
When my children were young, I used to thrill in their questions and their attraction to the natural world. Through them I had the chance to relive some of my youthful lust and passion for the universe.
While finishing college I worked a night shift and would get home about six in the morning. Before going in to shower and get ready for the day’s classes, I would walk to the backyard to check on six tomato plants. The fascination wasn’t as strong as it had been twenty-some years earlier but it was alive and healthy.
Several times I have raised egg plant. I don’t particularly like egg plant. I’ve eaten it only twice in my life but it’s such a miracle. I enjoy watching a deep royal purple fruit with a smooth sheen develop from nothing. It’s a miracle!
This afternoon I begin the master gardener program. For the next 13 weeks on Tuesday afternoons, I’ll take part in a series of three hour classes. Why? To sow the seeds of miracles; to recapture more of the wonder and mystery of childhood; to roll and revel and relish in the natural world.
I’ve learned that “as we sow, so shall we reap”. The more I invest myself in life, the richer my life becomes. I’ll not plant only fruits, vegetables and flowers. I’ll plant the seeds of a happy and content life as an old man – a young, and perhaps childish, old man.
posted by Paul at 9:47 AM
4 Comments:
Man, I wish you could bottle some of that high energy excitement and send me a couple of jolts.
Life is indeed sweet, isn't it?
Me too - similar pattern of childhood wonder, then getting away from that in my teens and early twenties (somehow teenagers seem to typically be bored by almost everything); and finally a resurgence of wonder. A different quality than in childhood... something lost but something gained I think.
Paul aka "Darius" formerly of possiblegospel
Paul I often come here and read but do not comment as I feel out of my depth.
Love ya pics.
There are topics i have no clue as to what is being said so I leave it alone and i think sometimes my humour is misunderstood....
Such is life....the the floor drops!
Speaking of gardening...I wonder if it would help suck some of this excess CO2 out of the air if we could get as many people all over the world as possible plant a vegy garden in their backyards. Hell, the worst that could happen is people getting a tad bit healthier eating all those vegies!
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