The initiative in our church that has taken on showing up for one another is called Pay it Forward. A herd of neighbors arrive armed with buckets and gloves, rakes and clippers ready to transform a yard gone haywire, or a basement that flooded.
They are coming to my house.
If you can lift
your chin above the sinking feeling that you are a complete loser for having let your house or grass get out of control, it is amazing. Kind of like those babies who learn how to float on their backs and not drown. It is a very real possibility, to drown in embarrassment that you cannot manage it all.
And yet they come. Smiling, even.
The anticipation has been seeping into my soul for weeks, wondering what might emerge in the aftermath of four
years of chickens. It is not just the chickens, though. They did their best to sheer the blades, and deplete the population of bugs. But neither John nor I possess an even faintly green thumb, and the sprawling bushes mock us. I have heard that animals know when you are scared of them, and will be more aggressive. I am scared of my ivy, and I would not hesitate to call it aggressive.
Years ago a friend planted a butterfly bush by the back door, to
thank us for a season of marriage group. It has been bullied by hostas and will be relieved to have them reprimanded. Another woman put a rose bush beside the deck that blooms red in spite of my negligence. It was a barter, she gardened while I taught her children sewing. The two dogwoods that friends gifted us with a few years back are thriving, and their snowy blossoms arrive each spring. A couple whose own garden could grace the cover of a seed catalog has offered to trade their skills
with flowers and vegetables, for mine with fabric. Which is the sweetest bargain I can imagine. I took two bags of unfinished blocks and made them bed worthy. She and her husband have already begun to unearth the possibilities within our property line.
Isn't it remarkable? People who can help a landscape, or a rosebush, a neighbor, or a spouse, pull back the weeds and thrive?
