Gardener’s Soufflé (in December!)

I’m writing this on my patio while eating some leftover pizza (in December!) after a particularly good turn at composting this morning. Based on some reading and good advice from one of my sons-in-law, I am trying the layering technique: 

I used my phone for these snapshots, which will probably not wind up on Instagram as that service seems to be for photos of more socially acceptable topics than what I use in my compost layering, thanks to my neighbor’s horse down the street.  I even scheduled a time to show up.

Incidentally, while warming up the pizza, I noticed my phone was no longer in my jacket’s pocket.  Considering what I had just been working with, this could potentially be mildly unpleasant.  So I took Bob’s phone outside to call mine, and I followed the ring tone, (conjuring up images of Jurassic Park 3-The Lost World…)

Yes, there it was, thankfully not fully buried but nevertheless next to a particularly large clump. 

(No worries, I washed my hands again after cleaning it off and before chowing on the pizza.)

My attempts at this Gardener’s Soufflé comes with the hope of things that WILL end up on Instagram, and as well in my stomach. There’s really quite an art to harvesting and recycling, um…otherwise unusable portions of biological matter, which can then be mixed with raw vegetable leftovers from the kitchen, shredded up leaves, and “old” dirt that could use a face lift.  Add water, and voila!  Gardener’s Soufflé!  The result becomes a delectable hash of nutrient-rich soil from which, when added with water and sunlight, the plants can draw their life. 

Granted, I suppose it takes a special perspective to get excited about horse excrement, except that this type of thing is just one of the essentials to producing good, quality food. One might not usually find that perspective growing up in the ‘burbs as I did, although I was thankfully brought up in the Midwest; pity the poor folks that know nothing but the city—it’s so easy to get away from the reality of what it takes to actually MAKE food!

Like dump.  (Or the synthetic, chemical equivalent thereof.)

Interesting, then, how I think I can so astutely hide the “refuse” in my own life, (as if trying to keep it out of sight will somehow disguise the odor…) On the contrary, what I interpret as undesirable may be the the very thing God wants to use.  It’s only when I allow the Holy Spirit to skillfully shovel and mix my past into my present (and future), blending it with repentance and humility, adding His own spiritual light and water to produce food—quality, healthy, nourishing sustenance, not only for my own soul, but those within my influence!  It takes time and effort, sometimes it’s a inconveniently messy, but with His expertise the process is always productive.  Always.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways
    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Therefore, if His perspective on my life is all-encompassing, including the parts I’d rather not post on Instagram, perhaps you could be more patient with, say,…your’s?

Isaiah 55:8-9  Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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