Years ago I was astonished when my brother, Andy, led me on a mini tour of his garden. He had everything from tomatoes to canteloupe and even some corn stalks. For added flavor, Andy planted an herb garden for cooking. A few years later, I visited my sister, Rachel, and she, too, had gotten the garden bug and hard cultivated her own variety of veggies. Why is this so astonishing? We had never grown anything as children expect weeds in our backyard. Okay, we had a blackberry bush, but is a wild one that grew along our back fence! To watch them become animated with their garden tales is always enjoyable--and I always have to take a tour to inspect their home-grown goods. I do admit that home-grown always taste better than store bought.
Well...now it's my turn! The other day a dear friend gave me seeds for tomatoes, green peppers, chili peppers & jalepenos (for C!), and a variety of herbs. It took nearly 2 hours to plant the seeds in pots and clean up the mess on my balcony. Oh, have I mentioned that we live on the 5th floor? Anything I 'plant' can only grow in a pot. As I studied the back of each seed packet I was struck by the length of time it took to germinate such a small seed. Most of which is only 3 weeks. From that point on, it will take several more weeks before the plant grows and within a few months I should be picking treats from my very own balcony garden.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if everything in life was just like planting a garden? One of my favorite books of poetry talks about 'cultivating faithfulness'. Only with great patience and waiting will I have the time needed to cultivate faithfulness. A friend of mine was heading back to the States and was going to have the opportunity to speak with others about her life in this part of the world. It was disheartening to hear how discouraging those at home can be...most without realizing it. Questions that pertain to amount of fruit and vegetables is not an easy questions for those who live within this hemisphere. Cultivation and germination is not a mere 3 weeks and harvest is rarely within 3 months. For many in this part of the world, the call of cultivation is a call to surrender to time, schedules, and to status quo demands. A Farmer's Almanac does not exist for what we have been asked to do. It's a call to surrender to timing not known to us, but Praise Him! It IS known by our Father.
How is your cultivation going this season? Ask the Father where He wants you to plant His love, His grace, and His forgiveness within the soil around you.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Thankful for Thanksgiving
Have you ever experienced Thanksgiving in a different country? Or invited someone from a different country to your home for Thanksgiving? C and I celebrated Thanksgiving in a few different ways. For the past month, C has had visiting students from Africa in his classroom. Seeing as they were far from home, he made them all (that's SEVENTEEN teenage boys) chocolate chip cookies. They were very grateful and a few of them had eaten their small bag of cookies before leaving the classroom. (Note: I'm thankful he let me have one hot from the oven!)
I've been teaching at a language center and chose to make pumpkin bread for the ladies I teach as well as though who work at the center. They had never had it before and wanted to know if I had cut up and boiled my own pumpkin in order to make the bread. What a glorious moment to impart on my new friends the wonderful world of canned foods. The executive at Libby's (for Libby's Pumpkin) should be given a raise! Of course these ladies wanted to know if maybe my grandma didn't show me how to use real pumpkin. I let them know that I had one grandma who grew up in the city and one who grew up on a farm and I had never seen either one of them use anything other than Libby's pumpkin mix.
Of course, not everything is as easy over here when it comes to baking for special occasions. Pecan pie is an expensive treat seeing as 1 kilo or 2.2 pounds of pecans will cost nearly $30 USD. Thankfully I bought a few bags before leaving the States. I won't even go into how thankful I am for Jiffy and Shawnee Mills Cornbread! Boxed breads are hard to find and the price is quite high when you do find them. I used my last Jiffy cornbread mix last night to go with our chili. It's the little things in life that bring the comforts of home anywhere in the world. We will have to stock up on those goodies next summer while in the States.
Our Thanksgiving evening was spent with friends from America, England, Canada, India, and South Africa. Quite a mix! After two long days of cooking (pumpkin bread, pecan pie, cornbread dressing, German chocolate cake), I nearly fell asleep on our friends couch after feasting on our evening meal. C&I cut the evening short and headed home to call family and friends. With a 9 or 10 hour time difference, calling can be tricky at times. We are thankful for those of you we could speak with and for those we could not--HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING!
I've been teaching at a language center and chose to make pumpkin bread for the ladies I teach as well as though who work at the center. They had never had it before and wanted to know if I had cut up and boiled my own pumpkin in order to make the bread. What a glorious moment to impart on my new friends the wonderful world of canned foods. The executive at Libby's (for Libby's Pumpkin) should be given a raise! Of course these ladies wanted to know if maybe my grandma didn't show me how to use real pumpkin. I let them know that I had one grandma who grew up in the city and one who grew up on a farm and I had never seen either one of them use anything other than Libby's pumpkin mix.
Of course, not everything is as easy over here when it comes to baking for special occasions. Pecan pie is an expensive treat seeing as 1 kilo or 2.2 pounds of pecans will cost nearly $30 USD. Thankfully I bought a few bags before leaving the States. I won't even go into how thankful I am for Jiffy and Shawnee Mills Cornbread! Boxed breads are hard to find and the price is quite high when you do find them. I used my last Jiffy cornbread mix last night to go with our chili. It's the little things in life that bring the comforts of home anywhere in the world. We will have to stock up on those goodies next summer while in the States.
Our Thanksgiving evening was spent with friends from America, England, Canada, India, and South Africa. Quite a mix! After two long days of cooking (pumpkin bread, pecan pie, cornbread dressing, German chocolate cake), I nearly fell asleep on our friends couch after feasting on our evening meal. C&I cut the evening short and headed home to call family and friends. With a 9 or 10 hour time difference, calling can be tricky at times. We are thankful for those of you we could speak with and for those we could not--HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING!
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