{"id":3205,"date":"2020-04-27T20:35:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T03:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/coloringoutsidethelines\/?p=3205"},"modified":"2020-04-27T20:35:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T03:35:44","slug":"gardening-glory-happening-elements-beyond-our-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/coloringoutsidethelines\/2020\/04\/gardening-glory-happening-elements-beyond-our-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Gardening & Glory Happening (& Elements Beyond Our Control)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
Instagram \/\/ @carameredithwrites<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The boys and I spent much of the weekend getting our hands dirty, digging in the dirt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0We searched the backyard for potential patches of soil, certain one corner might just be right to harvest a batch of spinach seeds. After we\u2019d found the perfect spot, one son sprayed water onto the hardened earth while the other dug a shovel into the ground, turning over tiny clumps, a few at a time. I struck the space with a hand trowel; I let frustration pummel from my body into something physical, tangible, good.<\/div>\n

And when I poured vegetable soil into the already-existent earth, the smell of wet dirt pinched my nostrils. Does dirt always smelled this way? Have I just not noticed it, at least not in awhile? But as the three of us mixed the two elements together, I wondered if the combination of old and new, of same and not same, would actually work in the end. Will the seeds sprout and flower and eventually produce the food we so desired in a couple of months?<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know. I wouldn\u2019t know. I\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0<\/em>know.<\/p>\n

That knowing \u2013 of not actually knowing the answer, not now, not ever \u2013 feels so true to the current season.<\/p>\n

Later, I asked my best friend from high school (the one I call my personal gardening expert) whether the seeds would sprout, but she too didn\u2019t know.\u00a0Sometimes the seeds are planted too deep. Sometimes they\u2019re planted too shallow.\u00a0Sometimes there isn\u2019t enough sun. Sometimes there\u2019s too much water.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes \u2026 the elements are simply beyond our control.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps like you, the last six weeks have sometimes felt impossible. Even if I know how to be a teacher, I know I am not the best teacher for my boys. Even if I want to write and publish articles, the words that were once there now feel like they\u2019re lost inside of me, altogether out of reach.<\/p>\n

I listen to a podcast episode of The Daily<\/a> or read an article from The Washington Post<\/a>, and I hear that this is the new normal (even if people are starting to experience quarantine fatigue<\/a>). I remind myself that I need to prepare for a marathon instead of a sprint. I shake my head in disbelief: it\u2019s too much to take in when no one actually knows how long it\u2019ll be until a vaccine is developed or how long it\u2019ll take for our children to return to school<\/a> so the economy can really, actually recover.<\/p>\n

But then, not because I want to end on a note of grace or positivity, but because this is the real truth, tiny moments of outstanding beauty rise up to greet me. I feel my breath catch inside my throat. I am found captured by the gift of the present.<\/p>\n

I think of Kaitlin Curtice\u2019s words in Glory Happening<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are shaped by our daily habits, by the way we pray in the light and in the dark, by the way we speak and the way we trust.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t know if the seeds the boys and I thumb into the earth will actually produce fruit \u2026but we get our fingers dirty anyway, because this digging-in and turning-over and being still matters in the moment.<\/p>\n

This is glory happening.<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll how long I\u2019ll continue to homeschool my children \u2026but I marvel in glory when and as I watch them get it, when the son who struggles with his phonics and sounds because of a learning disability not only reads but remembers an entire word he didn\u2019t know a week before.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This too is glory happening.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever get another freelance article picked up or actually figure out what my next book is supposed to be about, but for now, as I sit in my office, I trust that this moment of listening to the sounds of silence \u2013 and discovering a Patheos blog post in between those spaces \u2013 is enough.<\/p>\n

For this too, still, is glory happening.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I do the only thing we can do, the thing I keep writing and telling myself (and others), over and over again: I put one foot in front of another and I keep moving forward. After all, as Curtice said, all of us are shaped by our daily habits, including by the ways we speak and the ways we trust.<\/p>\n

Maybe we really have no other choice but to keep our eyes open for glory happening.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

So, how are you holding up? And where did you see glory happening this week?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

*Post contains Amazon Affiliate links<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The boys and I spent much of the weekend getting our hands dirty, digging in the dirt. \u00a0We searched the backyard for potential patches of soil, certain one corner might just be right to harvest a batch of spinach seeds. 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