Seasons of Change--Reflections From My Garden

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies
• She openeth her mouth with wisdom...

Lately I've been feeling just a bit like my garden looks--sad and neglected.

There are some parts that are like this corner--it used to hold flourishing squash plants, but after a good frosts and a hard freeze or two, it's empty and full of dead leaves.

Other pieces of me feel overgrown and gone to seed, like the lettuce. Did you know that when lettuce bolts, even though it looks just as pretty and green and growing on the outside, it becomes inedible and bitter? There are some parts of us that need to be discarded and left behind--good for the compost heap, but not much else--to keep our hearts tender and tasty instead of tough and bitter.

The good news is, that there are pieces of me that are like this little patch of carrots--still green and pretty, and still giving little bites of goodness--I failed to thin these, so they don't have much room to grow, but even though the carrots they produce are small, they are sweet and delicious. And what's more, they're thriving, even with the wacky weather we've had--cold, warm, rain, no rain--doesn't seem to matter, they just go right on growing and bearing fruit.

We also go through seasons in our lives--some warm, some cold; some moist, some dry; some fruitful, some not. The Master Gardener sees the big picture--He knows that sometimes you have to let some things go dormant; others need to finish up and go to seed so that we'll have something to plant for next year; and others He'll make sure that they continue to bear, however small the fruit.

I'm praying that the Master Gardener will bring me through this season to another spring--one of growth and new life and bearing of more sweet fruit.

Until next time...