Cultivating Love

Decades ago, I bought a little vase for my grandmother. She LOVED roses and grew them beautifully, caring for them as tenderly as ever she cared for one of us. For years and years, there was simply never a time I remember eating a meal without a bouquet of the most fragrant roses adorning the table for the pleasure of anyone who dined there. Even after she became ill - up to the time she just simply couldn't manage it - she would post a single perfect bloom as the centerpiece for our gathering.

Sadly, I have never had the facility for tending roses my grandmother had. Though I love them dearly, they don't seem to care for me, and rather than curse my inability to grow the one, I've embraced my desire to curate wilder stuff. 

Yearly, I allow sunflowers to proliferate in the garden, while also tending my zinnias, encouraging them to take over between the rows and ends. Miniature hollyhocks grow unbidden in my front flower bed and I often even move them to where they can grow the best.

I learned many, many things from my grandmother, but among them, my very favorite, was the love of growing things - planting, nurturing, harvesting, cutting, canning, arranging - all these I learned from a woman who had infinite patience with my frequent questions and irritations. 

It saddens me that so many young people today not only grow up without this kind of influence in their lives - the kind that CHANGES lives and makes them want to STRIVE for better - but grow up without a desire or ability to nurture something other than their own feelings of sadness, depression, anger and victimization. 

No one who cares enough to grow something - even something as simple as flowers in a pot on their porch - can also grow these kinds of destructive feelings. No one who tends to the work of their hands can do so without eventually wanting to share the fruits of their labor with others out of the joy gained from the opportunity.

Dear Lord, on this Sunday, in a world of hurting, anger and self-loathing, plant the seed of kindness in the hearts that will receive it. Give your children the desire to cultivate love in place of anger, kindness instead of hate, self-determination over victimization. Put it in our hearts to cultivate our fellow man above ourselves. Amen.