"Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace."
May Sarton
When I was nine or so I had the brilliant idea that I would plant popcorn kernels and grow a stand of corn plants.
I shared my plan with my mother, a pragmatist, and she replied to her dreamer daughter that this plan simply would not work. Nevertheless, I prevailed upon her to buy the popcorn and set about planning out the rows and mentally getting ready for the harvest of my bumper crop.
Now, I must interject that I may have been inspired by the former tenant of one of the units in our rambling, old apartment house. The word was that he grew the best vegetables around--beans, squash, and tomatoes to die for. So, perhaps I hoped that the ghosts of all the vegetables past would visit my patch and it would become verdant and bring forth the bounty I anticipated.
Well, I planted and sweated and worked over "God's little acre" like you would not believe. (In actuality the plot I worked was about 3 feet by 6 feet.) I tended my garden like Mistress Mary and waited.
Finally some sprouts peeped through the soil, so the watering and nurturing continued in earnest because I could see my labor paying off. The sprouts turned to small shafts and I was a farmer at last.
Through the long, hot Southern summer I toiled and at the end of my believing and diligence the earth brought forth eight perfect corn plants, and ultimately four small, perfect ears of corn. They were wonderful once picked as I held them in my hands. I rolled them over and over to behold the straight rows of what I envisioned as seeds of future plantings--bigger and better.
To the utter amazement of my parents and the neighbors I had triumphed. But, not to me, for I had BELIEVED with all my heart and soul that I would succeed.
It was perhaps the best and sweetest victory of my life. It was ME--I had the idea, I planted and tended. I succeeded where many thought I would not. I also believed in a God that would watch over me.
So, when I have dark moments, and come they must, I reach back to the summer of my youth and find my strength. It lay in believing in myself and in a Power that simply would not let me fail.
11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.