New Life

We can only live in winter for so long. We crave new life.

I have looked in great despair at our garden for the last few weeks. So much deadness. I know that is not good English but I am sure you know what I mean. Piles of dead leaves, rotting. Plants that had so much life last summer brown and dry. And in the midst of that I had allowed the recycling to overflow, bits of trash to lie around and the weather being so cold we had an overflow fridge to keep our drinks cool right at the back door.

Two weeks ago I had persuaded my mother and the littler boy to go and buy some plants from the local garden centre, a determined effort to fly the flag for spring. Yet days went by while we continued to live with the mess, not able to juggle our time to get a bag of compost and some time to do a little work. Until today! Friends, people who listen and care in the small and the big things that make a huge difference, pitched up at church with a big bag of compost.

With the sun shining and a very enthusiastic little helper, I set about clearing out a lot of the deadness and replacing it with fresh soil and new life which will soon grow and flower. We swept and filled the garden bin. We got filthy in our efforts but both felt that a good job had been done. We even took a trip to the recycle area to clear out a pile of paper from the garage, just like Peppa Pig.

We need winter. It is about resting and indeed dying. There comes a time though when we need to have a good look round, do a bit of reflecting on what we want and then we need to clear out the things that have no life, get rid of some of the rot and move into a period of preparation, of caring for new growth and indeed expecting new things to come in.

And yes, it is not just in our gardens!