The Heart of Spring Gardening
By Michelle Bates, LPC-MHSP | HeartLife Counselor
The sun is out and our spirts and moods feel lighter! Being outdoors in the spring can feel like medicine for the soul.
At home, we are working to plant a new flower bed in our backyard. Let me assure you I am no professional gardener. I've lost more than a few house plants in my lifetime, but I'm learning. We made it a family affair, enlisting the "help" of our littles who dug in the dirt with joy, but mostly just played with "wormies."
As I was pulling weeds and preparing the ground for compost and soil, I was reminded of the beauty of God’s creation and what a gift it is that God would teach us His ways through His creation. I couldn't help but think of my own heart as the ground in need of a deeply-rooted weed removal. My heart needs the nourishment of sunlight and water and good soil in order to be ready for new growth. It needs the patient process of seeds turning into seedlings, turning into stalks then finally into plants and flowers. Even if we feel like amateurs in tending to our own hearts, let me encourage you that God is full of grace and with us in the process.
Join me in praying the following liturgy, and may we put in the work this spring to tend carefully to our own hearts.
A Liturgy for Gardening
by Douglas Kaine McKelvey
"Through our tending of these
your delighted creations—
vegetables and fruits,
beans and berries,
vines and stalks and roots and flowers—
renew our own tired hopes,
redeem our own wearied imaginations.
As we cultivate gentle order,
training,
pruning,
weeding,
and protecting,
so cultivate and train our wayward hearts,
O Lord, that rooted in you
the forms of our lives might spread
in winsome witness, maturing to bear
the good fruit of grace, expressed in
acts of compassionate love.
...
"Walk with us now, O Lord,
in the stillness of this tilled and quiet space,
that when we venture again into the still
greater garden of your world, we might be
prepared by the long practice of your presence
to offer our lives as a true and nourishing
provision to all who hunger for
mercy
and hope
and meaning,
a true and nourishing provision
to all who hunger for you."
Every Moment Holy Volume 1 "For Gardening" by Douglass Kaine McKelvey
Michelle is a Licensed Professional Counselor and mental health service provider.
Michelle believes in the power of knowing you are not alone when you are facing life’s difficulties by finding comfort through God, authentic relationships and community. She often takes a cognitive behavioral approach to therapy while she strives to help clients know the peace that comes through God’s presence in their darkest moments. She strives to provide a safe environment to process life experiences and difficult emotions.
Learn more about Michelle and her areas of focus here.