Harden Not Your Soil....

I knew my failure to properly prepare my garden last winter would come back to haunt me.  It's April and I have garden beds to make ready, but it rained for hours yesterday (April showers) and the garden is literally under water.  The soil cannot be worked when it is too wet as all the air passages will be driven out and the end result will be hard, compacted soil....a soil which refuses to be penetrated by fresh air, clean water and the roots of tiny seedlings.

Soil is no different than the human heart.  Once assaulted and hardened, it takes years of TLC to soften it and return it to a place where it is willing and able to receive and absorb that which is good.

Habitual complaining.....

I have been so disgusted by our ineffective elected officials and their willingness to let good hardworking people suffer rather than do their jobs and trim the fat from our national budget.   This morning I read these quotes from Pope Francis regarding the dangers of constant complaining.  Then I looked out at my garden and the new life springing from the soil and considered the great time my family is having working together on this project and I realized that these ridiculous furloughs may turn out to be one of the nicest things we have ever lived through together.  Furlough Schmerlough!  I really needed to hear this message this morning.

They were afraid. All of the disciples were afraid,” he said. As they walked toward Emmaus and discussed everything that had happened, they were sad and complaining.“And the more they complained, the more they were closed in on themselves: They did not have a horizon before them, only a wall,” the pope said, according to Vatican Radio.The disciples had had such high hopes that Jesus would be the one who would redeem Israel, but they thought their hopes were destroyed, he said.“And they stewed, so to speak, their lives in the juice of their complaints and kept going on and on and on with the complaining,” the pope said. “I think that many times when difficult things happen, including when we are visited by the cross, we run the risk of closing ourselves off in complaints.”When all people can think of is how wrong things are going, Pope Francis said, the Lord is close, “but we don’t recognize him. He walks with us, but we don’t recognize him.”Like the disciples joined by the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus, people can hear beautiful things, but deep down, they continue to be afraid, the pope said.“Complaining seems safer. It’s something certain. This is my truth: failure,” he said.But the Gospel story shows how very patient Jesus is with the disciples, first listening to them and then explaining things step by step, until they see him.“Jesus does this with us, too,” the pope said. “Even in the darkest moments, he is always with us, walking with us.”Complaining and griping — about others and about things in one’s own life — is harmful “because it dashes hope. Don’t get into this game of a life of complaints,” he said.— The Catholic Sun

Spring..."the memorial of His abundant kindness.."