Boundaries

Here are some extra pictures highlighting the symmetrical and asymmetrical leaves!

 

Dawn Chorus

 

About the Dawn Chorus Phenomenon

https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/the-dawn-chorus-all-you-need-to-know-about-natures-big-show

Bird and Plant Relationship

https://birdsinthetree.com/do-birds-wake-up-plants/

Music For Plants

https://commonsensehome.com/music-for-plants/

Sonic Bloom

https://dancarlsonsonicbloom.com/

Seeds & Stewardship

I was off on the oak tree stat. "Oak trees take decades to mature and one oak produces more than 2,000 acorns every year, but only 1 in 10,000 acorns will manage to develop into an oak tree"

https://wisconsinwoodlands.org/wp-content/uploads/oaks-and-acorns-narrative.pdf

Eight generations of native seed cultivation reduces plant fitness relative to the wild progenitor population

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8288025/

 

Perennials & Humility

Sowing in Sadness

Yesterday was Saturday and I had a lot I had to do and wanted to get done-- including the Tea Formulation Gather prep and start more seeds and get the growing station setup. I was feeling discouraged and sad and just frustrated. Like a thick cloud of darkness settled in and clouded all my thoughts. At one point I thought, I don't want to plant seeds while I'm in a bad mood. I don't want to put that energy into them. It would be such a stark contrast from last planting when I was so excited and felt stirred up over what God is doing. I almost just threw the towel in for the day.

I don't actually believe that though. That's just some *woo hoo* nonsense.

So I went on DOING what I had set out to do. I set the shelves. Rigged up the grow lights and the heating pad. I prepped the soil and the tray. And I planted as I planned-- even as I was grumpy and sad and discouraged.

And then while I was planting a verse from Psalms came to mind:

⁵ Those who sow in tears

Shall reap in joy.

⁶ He who continually goes forth weeping,

Bearing seed for sowing,

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

Bringing his sheaves with him. Psalms 126:4-6

Scripture says the opposite of the good vibes only mentality! God isn't nearly as concerned about my bad mood getting bad vibes in my work. Sometimes all I can do is put one foot in front of the other. And DO the next thing. And that DOING is evidence of FAITH even if I feel like I can hardly muster and feelings of faith. It is, I am seeing, and act of my WILL. Not the thoughts of my mind, or dependent on if I can imagine how God will do it. Nor my emotions and how I feel in the moment. It is in fact an ACT of my will.

I picture salvation like a seed germinating. All of this life is bound up in the seed with no capacity on its own to unpack it. It needs the life activating water to ignite germination. Irrevocable growth. The faith is opening to receive. How different are our paths we each take to soften that hard husk on our hearts to a place to receive and say YES to new life in Christ. 

The truth is, there are many areas of my life that constantly need the salvific work of God. They need the life activating water to transform what ever it is into something that is LIFE GIVING. Sometimes I need that DARKNESS to see the futility of what I am doing and planning and philosophizing on my own means. Seeds without water bring no life. I need to receive HIS life to be life giving to others in all I am doing.

BELEIVE IN THE DARKNESS WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN IN THE LIGHT

Lilias Trotter

When Fantasy Kills Destiny

I’ve moved a lot. Whenever I’m about to move, or looking for a new place to live I always try to picture myself there first. What would it be like to LIVE there, to call it “home?” Would my things fit? Would my kitty be happy? Would the space be comfortable? Would I be able to have people come visit? Would I have access to the resources I need? Would I have access to the people and aspects of life that bring me joy?

It’s not just a new home I do this with, a new job, a new endeavor, a new friendship. All too often I let my ability to fantasize dictate the direction I move in life. Here is where I go wrong, (and perhaps you do too) I can only fantasize to the degree of my knowledge. I am limiting my own potential to what I KNOW.

I've heard it said that people can only believe something that is somewhere between 10-15% beyond their scope of understanding. These aren’t exact numbers of course, because there is no real metric for measuring these things, but Arthur Burk gives a great example. I cant remember the specifics of numbers he used, so I will use myself. If there was a pie graph of ALL KNOWLEDGE in the universe, it might be said that I comprehend 6% off all knowledge in the universe. 6% is a VERY generous number here! I also have a concept of things that I know that I don’t know, such as how to put a car together. I know people know how to do it, but I don’t. I understand that the knowledge exists, I just don’t have it. I could say that perhaps 9% of the pie of all knowledge I know that I don’t know. That would bring me to a whopping 15% of known knowledge and things I know that I don’t know.

If I let my ability to fantasize dictate my potential and options, I am severely limiting myself to less than a quarter of the pie! There is a whole 75% of the pie that is totally unknown!



Here is how fantasy can kill our destiny. Often the promises and purposes God has for us, are outside our ability to even fathom. If we only stay within the confines of the “known” we never really step into a place of faith. It is through faith and patience that we receive the promises of God!

Sometimes I get frustrated with not having greater clarity of the will of God. I actually think it is often the mercy of God that He only shows me step by step and little glipses. Sometimes getting a vision of what God has planned can be paralyzing because we can’t see how we will get from where we ARE to where He has called us.

I love the story of Abraham. There is a little half a verse that has so pricked my spirit and deeply inspires me. The second half of Hebrew 11:8 says,

“And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Wow.

God made Abraham a promise, even though he couldn’t see how it could be fulfilled, he went out in faith, not even knowing where he was going. Faith over feelings. Faith over sight. Faith over understanding.

Fantasy confines us. Faith gives us access to the limitless potential of the plans that the Creator of the Universe has for us—the knower of ALL KNOWLEDGE no matter how far off our grid of understanding!

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

Now to him who is able to do far more 
abundantly than all that we ask or think,

according to the power at work within us, 
to him be glory in the church and in 
Christ Jesus throughout all generations, 
forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21

GIVE THANKS:: WE ARE FORTUNATE ONES

Let us celebrate for a day some of the GOOD of our history. There is such value in blessing and celebrating the good, and coming in the opposite spirit to all the darkness and destruction of our past and present.

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.” (Luke 11:34 ESV)

When I read these words, I know they are true in my heart. I need to be sure my eyes are also seeing beauty and good and justice throughout my day or my heart and body grows sick. I often have to actively seek it out and be intentional to celebrate it. When I see the kindness of a father’s tenderness towards his daughter, when I see a stranger help a mother carry a stroller up the subway stairs, when families take in children that aren’t their own and love them as if they are. Sometimes, I simply want to sit and stare at flowers to get any bit of beauty in that I can.

Today, I am humbled, because truly we are the fortunate ones. Of all the founding colonies, Plymouth is the template for Thanksgiving. Colonies varied in their founding values- some established for strategic trade routes, some seeking gold and wealth, some tobacco cash crops-- as with Jamestown, whose governor was so oppressive in his rule that when the chaplain requested just an hour on Sunday to nourish their souls he was quoted "damn their souls, plant tobacco!" But these are NOT colonies in which our celebration originates-- it is Plymouth which was marked by intercultural cooperation that lead to abundance and celebration. 

I was reading a bit of Plymouth history, and I am in awe of #Squanto. He was twice a slave. First taken back to Europe after being captured by a sea captain, only to later return to his homeland with explorers and find his entire village wiped out by disease. He was then made a slave by a tribe of his own nation. As part of the peace treaty between the settlers and the Massasoit people, Squanto taught the settlers to grow and gather food, and fish. I can’t fathom the thoughts of Squanto’s heart. If he willing to help or if he was obligated, if the experience was healing or hurtful to farm and gather on the same land that all his now deceased relatives once inhabited. But I do know, they chose to break bread together in celebration of a successful harvest, and of the peace between two people groups. Of all the suffering, strife, conflict and selfishness— we can choose to celebrate what is GOOD.