The Fragrance of God

in spring I cultivate the perennial bed with an agented petals and sweet citrus fragrance of the regosa rose in mind in excitement I wait also for the green bouquet of the broccoli plant and the calm clean scent of the cucumber this was not always so in the beginning in my first garden in Richmond Virginia I farmed for food on the table but in Charlotte'sville Virginia in Eltersburg in Ristristown, Maryland and last here in Colpepper the garden has finally performed my disposition toward it it has entirely transfigured my vision of life for the sake of beauty I gladly leave the ruffled red cabbage to grow long beyond its time for harvest I let the mustard reach high with bright yellow bouquets I cultivate carefully the asparagus row not just for the taste of its buttery spears but also for the verdant fern foliage that shoots up after the spring cutting I let volunteer sunflower cosmos and kliomi seedlings grow where they choose and I sneak orange nasturtiums into the hills of sweet potato vines gardening grows from our deep longing for salvation so that beauty fills our lives

I realized that Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden whereas I willingly left my garden and I think that human beings have been leaving paradise and trying to grow it again ever since our first parents were sent off

Several summers ago my children found two turtles and put them in the vegetable garden. During a thought the next February as I was digging up the soggy soil where the peas go, I lifted a heavy mound with my shovel and then another. The two turtles had burrowed down for winter sleep and I had rudely awakened them too soon. So I carried them to a corner of the garden where I would not disturb them and dug them in again. When my wife said that she feared the turtles might be dead, I said I did not think so though I wasn't as sure as I sounded. I insisted that in spring they would come up and they did in Easter week. Lily's and Hiusin signify the resurrection and I can understand why but I have a pair of turtles that plant themselves in my garden each fall like two gigantic seeds and rise on Easter with earth and crowns upon their humble heads. With the women at the tomb, I marvel.

In one of the pieces in the fragrance of God called the Temple Transparent, I think I worked those metaphors up in just the way that I was explaining earlier on about the Old Testament sort of presenting the whole creation as a temple that God has set up for us.

In any case it's in the same style and you find it particularly among the ancient churches in the Syriac for example you're gonna find similar stories. And those stories can be wonderful. They're wonderfully poetic and bring great feeling into one's experience of the scripture themselves.

in spring I cultivate the perennial bed with an agented petals and sweet citrus fragrance of the regosa rose in mind in excitement I wait also for the green bouquet of the broccoli plant and the calm clean scent of the cucumber this was not always so in the beginning in my first garden in Richmond Virginia I farmed for food on the table but in Charlotte'sville Virginia in Eltersburg in Ristristown, Maryland and last here in Colpepper the garden has finally performed my disposition toward it it has entirely transfigured my vision of life for the sake of beauty I gladly leave the ruffled red cabbage to grow long beyond its time for harvest I let the mustard reach high with bright yellow bouquets I cultivate carefully the asparagus row not just for the taste of its buttery spears but also for the verdant fern foliage that shoots up after the spring cutting I let volunteer sunflower cosmos and kliomi seedlings grow where they choose and I sneak orange nasturtiums into the hills of sweet potato vines gardening grows from our deep longing for salvation so that beauty fills our lives

after Adam and Eve were beguiled by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit of the tree God commanded his angels to remove them from the garden and to guard the paths to it with a fiery sword and so Adam and his wife were banished from the garden and its light and abundant life and entered a place of darkness and gloom they remained there in misery for six days without anything to eat and no shelter they wept inconsolably over what they had lost and where they were sent but on the seventh day God took pity on the couple he sent an angel who removed them from the dark place and led them into this bright world the messenger showed them trees from which they could eat and satisfy their hunger and when Adam and Eve saw the light and felt the warmth of this world they rejoiced with exceeding gladness saying even though this place cannot compare with the home we have lost and its light is not nearly as bright or its fruit half a sweet nevertheless we are no longer in the darkness and can go on living

Several summers ago my children found two turtles and put them in the vegetable garden. During a thought the next February as I was digging up the soggy soil where the peas go, I lifted a heavy mound with my shovel and then another. The two turtles had burrowed down for winter sleep and I had rudely awakened them too soon. So I carried them to a corner of the garden where I would not disturb them and dug them in again. When my wife said that she feared the turtles might be dead, I said I did not think so though I wasn't as sure as I sounded. I insisted that in spring they would come up and they did in Easter week.