No one grows by someone else forcing them to grow…

June 15, 2015 | Reflections from some of the nuns

The Farm

No one grows by someone else forcing them to grow, but only by being willing to grow.

I have been thinking a lot about this idea in relation to the treatment of plants and soils but also in relation to the human body and soul. How easy it is to grab something off the shelf to give a plant a quick pick up. There are as many varieties and packets of plant feed in a nursery as there are biscuit varieties on the shelf at the supermarket. And they both have the same effect- the quick fix and neither gives the real nutrition needed for health and growth. I believe a plant hungers for good things just like we do and as with us the quick fix lasts a moment and then the slump follows.

A really strong healthy plant happens when the soil is full of life brimming with goodies, not dry and lifeless dirt. Take a visit out to your garden and scoop up the soil with both hands. Is it alive and brimming with goodness or is it dry, spent and unnourished. So too with our human spirit don’t you think?

 Meet 3 scallywags who are contributing to the goodness of   our soil. We have 20 ducklings at this age.  They will be  prepared as table birds in another month.

Birdie and I have been building up the garden beds ready  for the AUTUMN and WINTER planting. We have a new hot house and I am trying to construct a shade house to give the new seedlings a nurturing place before they get planted out and start their mission of growing into strong healthy vegetables. It is all very exciting stuff waiting and watching for seeds to emerge and then providing them with what they need.

I planted this olive tree in 2000 when I started to transform my bit of paddock into a beautiful, organic garden.  It stands at the very centre of the Abbey Farm. Sometimes I feel as if it watches over all the growing. It reminds me to wait patiently and

Are you up for a challenge?

“Take off your shoes you are on Holy Ground.”  Exodus 3:5

I am inviting you to take on a SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE!

Each day, each week let us together live for change. The mindless consumption of the world’s resources is my responsibility too and every little action I take will bring about change.

Give yourself a challenge this week. Consider something that you use that you could easily take for granted to be part of your everyday. It may be food, transport, heating, cooling or clothing. Consciously consider your usage or your accumulation and decide to put a healthy limit on it. Choose a limit that is not for the sake of yourself, as in putting yourself on a diet or cleaning out your cupboards. No, choose the limit for the sake of sharing in the common good. What I have too much of, in the thinking of the common good, means that I must have in my possession or at my disposal what belongs to someone else, what someone else may need.

Be abbot or abbess to yourself, calling yourself to be accountable. Choose some real, necessary and growth promoting limits. Serve and live for the sake of the common good.

God bless you in the week ahead.

Sr Mechtild of Jamberoo Abbey