This past week when I was in the office I asked Dana and Glen for ideas about what to write my weekly reflection about. “What about the changing seasons?” offered Glen. He proceeded to describe all the changes in Bethany’s garden that he sees on a daily basis and how much he delights in watching it each day.
All I could think of was what a horrible gardener I am.
I tried for many years to be a successful gardener. Perhaps I didn’t have the patience, or the time, to really give it what it needed. I don’t remember ever having much success, even with house plants.
My spouse took it up when he retired about 10 years ago. And this summer is the first summer in 5 years I have actually been around to enjoy his efforts. He is the first to tell you that he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. Each year he buys a selection of plants that he likes and recognizes, and what he thinks will work, paying attention to the little tags that tell you how much sunlight and water each plant needs. And then he puts them all together in containers of many different sizes and shapes and distributes them around the yard. There is no pattern. No overall plan.
And then he patiently cares for them all throughout the summer.
We have a very small city back yard. These days it is a riot of colour as the flowers continue to bloom and spread all around the perimeter. And I just sit back and enjoy the view. And marvel at the diversity and randomness of it all. And it’s true – every day I see something different.
This is a picture of a place called The Burren in County Clare in the west of Ireland. It consists of about 250 square kilometers, known as a karst landscape, which means that it is formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone and gypsum, and is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It comes from the Irish word boireann, which means a rocky place. It is often referred to as “fertile rock”, because of its mixture of herb and floral species.
I visited The Burren in 2015. I really didn’t know what I was looking at until I did a bit of research on the internet. In fact, this is the largest and most accessible karst region in the world, and the only place on the planet that Artic, Mediterranean and Alpine plants grow side by side.
In this environment, acid loving and lime loving plants grow adjacent to one another and woodland plants grow out in the open with not a tree nearby to provide shade from the sun. All this, in a land that appears to be composed entirely of rock.
I do remember our tour guide telling us that, and also that the reason there was such a diversity of plants is because of the migration of birds, and the seeds contained in their droppings.
It’s a very popular tourist area in Ireland, and it is also becoming very big in the area of ecotourism. There is also a diversity of small animals and other animals, insects and butterflies. There are many wedge tombs and megalithic tombs in the area, proving that people have been living in The Burren for 5,000 years.
If you are curious, you can find lots more information about it if you google The Burren. You will find lots of pictures, videos and information.
The Burren always reminds me that God’s world is unpredictable, and uncontrollable, and full of surprises. It reminds me that creation often has the ability to adapt to its surroundings, and that it is also a place where everything changes, and everything belongs. And that is good news. For everyone.