Who has not found the heaven below
Will fail of it above.
God’s residence is next to mine,
His furniture is love.
– Emily Dickinson
There is a certain divinity that occurs in the most normal of circumstances; circumstances which are not at first glance perfect, but in which somehow we find our transformation unexpectedly. The outcome is as if we are born for the first time. It can be brief, yet have a lasting impact on how we move through life. I am not asserting that one must follow a certain path in order to find “God”. I don’t prescribe to such limited notions. However, I am suggesting that we have moments of profoundness available to us in our daily lives by seeing in the ordinary the opportunity for holiness.
The garden gives us divinity when we listen and look with an open heart. It is where heaven is possible not just in some prescribed afterlife, but in the moment lived well, right here, right now. It is the daily act of weeding, planting, feeding, watering, taken on as sacred tasks.
Gardening is a magnificent opportunity or a haunting curse, depending on your point of view. Take on the opportunity and it will bless your life. See it as a curse and you will miss the garden’s ultimate gift.
We may never find the unexpected and magnificent composition if we insist what came before it is flawed. Consider the garden in spring as it explodes in color following its dormancy in winter and you might get my point. Beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder. Look with new eyes and consider that the thing you thought lost to you was always there right in front of you. Heaven on earth? Absolutely.
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