By Simon Ambit
Having filed the taxes and with Memorial Day just around the corner, it comes time to plant the annual garden. This year, I used the tractor to do the prep work and boy did it save me time and backbone! After burning the remains of any volunteer weeds and the remains of last season’s plant life, and upon spreading mulch and fertilizer across the entirety of the garden area, I lit into it with the tractor. Rotating the soil with the disc and then churning it together with the tiller, made the soil soft, fresh and ready for planting.
The tractor attachments were ruthless; they spared no clod and had mercy upon no furrow, churning, tilling and leveling everything in its path. Passing over the existing furrows, the tiller box seemed to be doing more harm than good as it thundered by in a cloud of dust and chaotic oscillation. But with each consecutive pass completed, the big tiller left behind a fresh and level, ready-to-mark swath in its wake.
As I operated the tractor and implements, I thought of the ground calling out to me saying, “Hey, what are you doing? Can’t you see that I am already a garden? Did I not provide you with a bountiful harvest last season? And now this is how you thank me… by destroying my proven furrows and tilling my topsoil under?”
I contemplate the principle in my own life and wonder how often I call out to heaven during situations of setback or difficulty, complaining, “Hey, what is going on? Why is this happening to me? Can’t you see that I am comfortable and already being who I want to be? Haven’t I been through enough already?”
With the ground of the garden now soft, free of weeds and integrated with a dose of fresh mulch and fertilizer, we are ready to plant and nurture the garden plants in an environment conducive to their survival. As we maintain and tend to the needs of the garden, we anxiously anticipate another bountiful harvest this fall.
I believe the same to ring true in our lives. If we will allow our setbacks to make us stronger, if we will remain teachable and seek knowledge continually, we will find that we will be the better for it in each consecutive season of our lives. Life can be awesome, till some added goodness into your life this season!