Thirty years ago, almost exactly, I was preparing to graduate from Columbia Theological Seminary, planning a wedding, and exploring options for a call to serve a church.
One evening I went to a meeting on campus. It was an opportunity to talk with pastors of small, rural churches in a southern state and their wives (!). One of those pastors’ wives asked me if I could can.
A few questions helped me realize that she meant putting lots of veg in glass jars.
The answer then was the same as it is now. No. I don’t can.
With a few more questions, I learned that for the first three years her husband served a particular church, his “raise” came in the form of one of the members plowing them up an extra acre of garden.
All of which feels even more real now than it did then!
There’s a big online conversation happening in the corner of Atlanta where we hang out made up of folks who are wanting to learn about urban agriculture, given the current grocery shopping situation.
Who knew we’d be ahead of the curve???
Even though there isn’t much happening in the garden yet this year, there are 3 things on my list for today. The first is an online Red Thread Circle event around the topic of Medicine Baskets. (It’s an Intentional Creativity® thing.)
Then, there’s painting. I have three “in progress” just now.
This is What the World Needs Now. She’s almost finished!
And, then, there’s freezing. I still don’t can but we do have extra veg and they’re headed for the freezer, some blanched, some roasted, and all wrapped, ready for the soup pot. Especially the asparagus!
There’s also one other thing on my list, though it’s more of a non-thing.
I am fed up with crooked, fear-mongering politicians so I’m weeding my email list.
I’m unsubscribing to all the many, many emails that pretend to want to know what I think but actually want to scare me into “chipping in” to change things. I’m unsubscribing, with best wishes, to requests to help elect this candidate or that in places where I can’t vote. I’m unsubscribing to name calling and doom & gloom.
Instead, I’m going with gratitude and hope.
Gratitude for honest, concerned representatives of “we the people.”
Hope for some new names in the news, standing up for all of us.
And the kind of hope that comes with a contribution or two to people and causes focused on a future where as many of us as possible have what we need. I’m truly grateful for them.
I can’t do it all. Neither can you. I can stay home. Mostly. I can freeze veg. I can encourage loved ones and reach out to friends. And I can paint stories of hope.
Fear doesn’t help us learn and grow. It makes us angry and separates us.
But, because fear is a feeling, we don’t get to choose not to feel it, if we do.
We DO get to choose not to act out of it. Not to be defined or limited by it. And, usually, it’s a choice we need to make over and over again.
That’s okay.
Just think about what the world might be like if we all joined in and kept choosing hope, over and over again. Even if we can’t can!
ps… Earlier, I sat down with my lunch and flipped on the tv. What appeared was about the last 20 minutes of the movie, E.T. Context is, indeed, everything, which had me first hating/envying all the haz-mat suits and then giving thanks for the courage of those kids in helping one who was different, even in the midst of great unknown. May it be so for me, as well. And for us. ALL of us.