by Julia Reynolds Thompson, Director of Garden Operations
On a staff conference call this week, my garden coworker Sally reminded us that, through unpredictable weather and pests, gardening and growing food trains us to live with many unknowns. I thought to myself, “I have been growing food for a long time; why am I so bad at living with many unknowns?” We are all living in a time of uncertainty… about our jobs, our health, our leadership, our society. So, how can we lean in, live well, take care of ourselves, support our neighbors in the midst of this reality?
Working in gardens is hopeful work for me. I can only work with what’s available to me today. There is no way to know what the season will be like. Certainly some things will flourish and some will struggle. So, we plant the seeds. We worry over them and rejoice when they germinate. Or when they don’t germinate (I have been struggling with carrots for years), we sow again. We monitor the water they are getting. We crawl down the rows and pull up the weeds. We rejoice in our relationship to the earth, to our commitment to this plot of ground and to the delicate but resilient plants growing in it.
None of us knows what life will look like in the coming weeks and months. We can’t know yet what will return to normal, what will have been altered, who will flourish, who will struggle. So, we sow the seeds. We check on our neighbors, we call our coworkers, we video chat with our families. We worry about folks losing their jobs or not having enough to eat. We rejoice in our relationship to the people we love, in our commitment to our city and the delicate but resilient people growing within it.
I have seen my coworkers doing this work as I’m sure you have seen those around you cultivating community despite physical distance, rejoicing in the work before them, caring deeply about both neighbor and stranger. All of this cultivates hope in me. May it be so for you as well.
