Faith, hope, and LOVE—most of all LOVE

Quotes of the day: 

“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

“None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.”
― Paulo Coelho, Brida

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” — 1 Corinthians 13:13

Tiny Dwarf Cherry Tree We Planted

Have you ever put off doing something you really wanted to do because you weren’t sure if it would be worthwhile?

I have—too often.

Close-up of cherry tree surrounded by plastic container to protect it from rabbits

I don’t commit to doing things now because with the chronic pain I live with I’m never sure how I will feel when the day of the event comes. I put off creating the garden that I dream of because I’m not sure if I’ll be physically able to take care of it. The list of things I’ve put off is long and the reasons are varied.

But as I get older I become more aware of how short life is and how precious our hopes and dreams are.

2 blueberry bushes, 2 red raspberries, 2 aronia bushes, 2 black raspberries in their temporary home (waiting for planting areas to be prepared)

This summer I made a leap of faith and ordered 2 red raspberry bushes, 2 black raspberry bushes, 2 blueberry bushes, 2 aronia berry bushes, and a dwarf cherry tree to plant in our back yard.

For most of my adult life I’ve wanted a garden and tried various schemes to make gardening a part of my life—like when we were renting a townhouse around the time our second daughter was born.  I rented garden space in a community garden several miles from where we lived.

This red raspberry is going to need lots of faith, hope and love

My husband and older daughter who was 7 at the time helped me lovingly plant, water, and tend our little garden.  It was an early spring that year and by the time our youngest daughter was born in early June, it looked absolutely wonderful. I remember taking my mother-in-law down to see the garden the night before our daughter was born and it was so beautiful and healthy, just needing a couple more weeks before crops could be harvested.

Then came the birth of our daughter and the haze of those early days of motherhood, long sleepless nights and an infant who, because of numerous food allergies that we were unaware of, was a light sleeper and often fussy. Because the garden was several miles away, it was a big production to get ready to go to there.

Happy blueberry bushes

First I fed the baby, then gathered my tools, stroller, diaper bag, and 7-year old and loaded up the car for the 15 minute drive to the garden. All would be well when we arrived at the garden.  But as soon as I began weeding and working in the garden the baby began fussing, refuse to be consoled or distracted, and that would be the end of my gardening for the day. Repeat this scenario about a half dozen times and you’ll understand why the garden was forgotten and neglected for the remainder of the summer.

Aronia berry bush

It was a long time before I tried gardening again. When we bought our first house, a duplex with a big sloping back yard , I persuaded my husband to rent a roto-tiller and create a small garden plot in the south-facing back yard of the house.  I planted the garden, the rabbits and deer came and ate the garden. Then the rains began eroding the soil down the hill because the garden was planted on a slope.  I realized that in order to garden here, I would need to terrace the slope and put in a 6-foot high fence to keep deer out. This was more than we wanted to do ourselves. So I decided to give up my dream of gardening for awhile. Kids and work kept me busy enough anyway.

One of my pot gardens

When we moved to the place we live now, the deeply shaded back yard was not appropriate for gardening and I no longer had the physical ability to do lots of the work needed to create my own garden. Last year I started doing some serious pot gardening in front of our house and I’ve loved the salads, cherry tomatoes, parsley, peppers, kale, radishes, and spinach that I’ve been able to grow. Next year I plan to expand my pot garden.

But I also love berries and the idea of permaculture—planting food crops in your yard that bear fruit or crops every year.

Kale plant in pot garden

For some reason in the middle of July (after one of our big trees was felled by a storm, opening up much more light in the back yard) I threw caution to the winds and went online to order plants. It was one of those “Hell YES!” moments that later turned into, “What was I thinking???”

You see I’ve been having a rough summer with a flareup of fibromyalgia pain that started in the late spring and hasn’t ended yet. While I’ve had days when I’ve been able to do some work in the back yard, there have been far more when I’m simply not able to do any weeding, trimming, or digging.

Another view of dwarf cherry tree

The plants arrived last week. And they were such tiny, itty-bitty plants, that I seriously questioned my sanity again. The dwarf cherry tree was all of 6 inches high. Will it ever grow up and bear cherries? And will we live here long enough to eat a harvest from this tree? Who knows?

That’s the thing about life—we never know what might happen.

And that’s why I said, “Hell YES!” even though I didn’t know for sure how I was going to get the berries planted. I figured, first you commit yourself (that’s the faith and hope part), then you make it happen (that’s the love part).

Cherry tomatoes

Now, I would have loved to hire someone to make it happen. But my sweet and patient husband offered to plant them (not without some grumbling, of course, when he hit the third layer of rocks and plastic digging out the area where I wanted the cherry tree planted).

Here he is. He doesn’t like gardening, he doesn’t eat berries, and he’s also starting to feel more aches and pains when he takes on physically challenging tasks.

Despite all that, he has been working hard on preparing the places for them to live which includes, clearing out bushes, digging out their roots, clearing away multiple layers of rock and plastic, digging in new soil and compost, planting, and mulching, and figuring out how to protect the young plants from deer and rabbits.

Parsley in container garden

That’s a lot of work for someone who doesn’t eat berries and doesn’t like gardening. As I watch him work on this project, I realize that I probably would not be so patient or loving.

And that’s the miracle I’m most thankful for —the LOVE that he makes manifest through his actions.

It takes faith and hope but also love—most of all LOVE

Sometimes we make a leap of faith and it works out. Sometimes we make a leap of faith and it doesn’t work out. And sometimes other people (our loved ones and sometimes complete strangers) reach out though selfless acts of love to other people and help make their dreams come true.

We never know what will happen.

But if you never make a leap of faith I can guarantee that whatever you dream of will not happen.

What are you waiting to say, “Hell YES!” to?

More cherry tomatoes