One of my favorite summer pleasures is a really simple one. On
some afternoons, I like to sit next to our garden and watch the vegetables
grow. No, it’s not possible to stare and see them actually change before my
eyes (although that would be really cool!). But I do notice, each day that I spend
time there, that the plants have gone through changes.
This year, our tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs thrived but our
zucchini and beans withered and failed. Our eggplants, beets, corn and carrots
will hopefully be ready to harvest soon. But the strangest results in the
entire garden came from our peppers this year. We grew very tall, leafy and
strong plants with maybe one or two small peppers. Hardly a worthwhile harvest
for the time and attention invested in the plants.
I was talking about my pepper plant conundrum with the adult
son of one of our older members as we visited together in a nursing home facility.
I remarked to him how strange it was that we got such different results from
different vegetables since the soil and sunlight in the garden is so remarkably
similar. He told me that peppers are a kind of plant that produces flowers ONLY
when under duress. With ample water,
sunlight and nutrients the plant will thrive, but it won’t feel a need to
reproduce itself unless it feels like it could die soon.
We are so much like a pepper plant! We might feel like we have it all – wealth, health, steady faith, intelligence,
a fulfilling job, a vacation, great relationships with those we love, a home.
Maybe those are the times when it’s easy to forget to reach out, to be
thankful, to bring some of what we have to other people.
Most of us will struggle at some time in our life, just like
a pepper plant in need. We go through unemployment, health scares, break-ups,
loss and grief. It has been my experience that these are the moments when
reaching out to someone else can be the most healing. Having a cup of coffee
with a friend who is also going through something, volunteering your time in a
food pantry or soup kitchen, giving your fervent prayers to God - all of these opportunities
can turn our hearts outward and help us feel hope. Sometimes we grow the most
when we come through difficult times then turn to help a neighbor do the same.
