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A Mercy Emanating

 


The House at Night with Palmetto

The other night, I made my way out to the pool while David had a friend over to watch a game. The dogs trailed along, of course, and we sat at the edge. I put my feet in. They watched over me, anxious for me to get in the water and equally anxious that I should not. I felt the same -- it's still too cold in April. I prefer the warm bathwater of July and August, when I can get in without the shiver or sharp intake of breath. It's been a long time since I got in the water, and a longer time since I wrote in this blog, but the whole time the palmetto has been growing taller, and the sky has waited for me. 

For the past three years, I have been the president of the Poetry Society of South Carolina, and it has taken a great deal of my time. At first I was a whirlwind, riding the streets and acting as advocate for the society and for poetry itself. Year two, I slowed down a bit, and last year, I really felt myself coming to an end of it. I'm grateful for what I learned from it, but now is the time for me to return to my church in the greenhouse, to the backyard swing so long neglected, to the Secret Garden of my soul.


Today, I read from a book about Religion and Ecology with one of my international students, a Polish man who likes to tend to his garden. I highlighted this passage:

"Nature is therefore to be seen as a mercy emanating from the Divine Mercy and is to be treated as such" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr).

Have you thought much of gardening as a spiritual practice? Every seed that survives is a miracle, my Polish student reminds me: the balance of water, soil, sun, and time must be correct. I'm very protective of the seedlings. I tell David, "Don't use any other setting but "mist" on the sprayer. They are delicate." I check them in the morning and in the afternoon. Some of them hate being replanted in a bigger pot, and promptly give up the ghost. In every failure, I have an opportunity to learn, and also recall how the spiritual seedlings within me have sometimes grown and other times fallen away.

My student (Gregorz) and I also plan to start reading Spiritual Gardening: Creating Sacred Space Outdoors. I found it for free (to check out) at the Internet Archive. He is always out working on his garden before we meet on Saturdays or Sundays, and although he is Catholic, and I am more of a spiritual explorer at this point, we share much that is good, hopeful, and sensitive to the needs of others. Over the summer, I'm going to work on this project little by little, as I take a break from poetry readings and events for the most part in June and July and turn inward for a while.

I long to read, to write, to swim, go to the gym, and see what happens with my spiritual gardening adventure. Of course, I'm teaching this summer as always, but where my mind can rest from that kind of work, I want to be strengthening the other aspects of my life and health.

Come along, and tell me what your spiritual garden is like.

Tamara




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