I never thought I would be that woman. Growing up, my mom always had my brother and me help weed in the gardens we had and it was awful! All afternoon in the hot sun, hands in dirty dirt where bugs jump out at you for fun- all during the time allotted for kids to be playing.
Gardening. Bleh.
Until now. My team is helping to build an orphanage in North Central Bulgaria this month, in a 300-year-old village. Part of what we do is hammering in floorboards, laying down tile, building a parameter wall out of the heaviest rocks on the planet, mowing, digging, and just plain smartening up the place- making it ready for the many orphans who will find a family home here.
One of the most surprising- and interesting- things we have been asked to do is weed a long-ago-forgotten garden, and help plant new things. My teammates Daniel and Karilyn, and I, weeded around onion plants and flowers for two entire days before we could begin hoeing the ground around them, tilling, and overall preparing to transplant a strawberry patch from the other side of the property. The last two 8:30-to-5 days have been weeding around the strawberries, digging them out from the roots, and replanting them in our weeded/hoed/tilled new garden. And it’s awesome!
Eight hours a day in the baking hot sun is not what you might think of when you hear the word “paradise.” And I’m not saying the work we have been doing is “light.” But it is wonderful to have the sun on your back, the wind in your hair, birds singing in your ears, and your hands in the earth. Seeing an area go from overgrown underbrush, weeds, and stinging nettles to a freshly turned Garden of Eden is overwhelming. I leave every day with a sense of genuine satisfaction, not just in my work, but in the product of my work. I show up the next day in eager anticipation of seeing if the plants have successfully taken root again or not. To see the beginning picture, and the picture of where it is now is remarkable. And it’s only week one! I’m eagerly looking forward to what the garden will look like at the end of our month here.
It’s also nice to be working almost alone, there in the garden. Listening to my music, or an audiobook, or one of my pastor’s online sermons… spending time in prayer and worship, or just plain sitting in the love of my Savior… these are all things I experience there in the garden.
It’s also quite practical, this work I’ve been given. I have this crazy dream of being a homemaker when I have kids later in life, and I hope to have a vegetable and herb garden in order to help feed my family. This is such practical practice for that! I love it.
Any way you look at it, I have discovered yet another thing I love while on this Race. Gardening. Harrumph. Who’d’ve thought?
It's like I've died and gone to Jane Austen Land.
