Monday, August 26, 2019

A Bit of Earth🌱

"Might I," quavered Mary, "might I have a bit of earth?"

..."Earth!" he repeated. "What do you mean?"
"To plant seeds in--to make things grow--to see them come alive," Mary faltered...

Mr. Craven got up and began to walk slowly across the room.

"A bit of earth," he said to himself...When he stopped and spoke to her his dark eyes looked almost soft and kind. "You can have as much earth as you want," he said. "You remind me of someone else who loved the earth and things that grow. When you see a bit of earth you want," with something like a smile, 


"take it, child, and make it come alive."
~The Secret Garden


One of our favorite summer movies is the Secret Garden!  We like all versions of this classic movie.  It's about a little girl named Mary that experienced tremendous loss and was just numb with grief and anger.  Her life began to change with the help of a bird (a robin) after a magical gust of wind blows the ivy away from a mysterious door and she discovers a secret garden.

Her healing was evident as the garden came alive, so she too came alive. All the toll of plowing and planting, the plants bloomed and she bloomed and it touched those around her.

I was finishing up this painting and there was a loud commotion outside my window.  I looked and it was a rental company putting a sign up on my neighbors yard.  The commotion continued as I was painting but I get very involved (tunnel vision) while painting and I didn't look up a second time.

An hour later I walked the dog and everything was gone in a patch of landscape by the sidewalk except a sign that it was treated with pesticides.   I have been fighting the use pesticides for years and thought I won, until a rental company (that doesn't even live here) didn't like the ornamental grasses in my front yard and removed them with poisons and put my pretty pots and landscaping rocks in front of the rental side, because it looked pretty.    (As I'm writing this I just got off the phone with them and they denied that they used them). 


"The next time we do this we will leave you a note" she said.  

You have no right to come on someone property and do this, ever! Put yourself in my place, how would you like someone to rip out your plants and pour poison in your yard?  I said, I lost one dog already. Never again! 
 He makes all things new!
🌱
“She stopped and listened to him and somehow his cheerful, friendly little whistle gave her a pleased feeling--even a disagreeable little girl may be lonely, and the big closed house and big bare moor and big bare gardens had made this one feel as if there was no one left in the world but herself. If she had been an affectionate child, who had been used to being loved, she would have broken her heart, but even though she was "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" she was desolate, and the bright-breasted little bird brought a look into her sour little face which was almost a smile. She listened to him until he flew away. He was not like an Indian bird and she liked him and wondered if she should ever see him again. Perhaps he lived in the mysterious garden and knew all about it.” 
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden


So my carefully planted and landscaped spot is bare dirt now and I took my pots back off the rental property side and I'm thinking today about this beautiful strong woman in the painting.  How happy it is for her to have a bit of earth in this world.  How lovely are her growing plants that she is watering and cultivating to feed her family.  

What a completely liberating thing to do!

Irene (I just found out she has my mother’s name) is watering plants on a farm plot in Malawi. She’s cultivating high quality seeds that will yield valuable crops for her family.
Photo reference/World Vision
Painted in 
oils
Art project for charity 
“A bit of earth”🌱
Sharing seeds with friends and they also grow into blooms. Titus.

Proverbs 31 woman- She is strong. She is brave. She is loving. She is real. She is a follower of Jesus.
She is strong, because she is a woman.
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song will I praise him.
Psalm 28:7
“She made herself stronger by fighting with the wind.” 
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

  


Photo credit/World Vision 

“At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done--then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.” 
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden





“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” 
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden


If you would like to sponsor a girl 🎋

Or donate to hunger with World Vision, donate here.🎋

“And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.” 
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden




“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that 'she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow'.” 
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden


The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
Isaiah 51:3

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