Growth doesn’t happen all at once.

I have this long term goal of being a “Homesteader,” living green in a place that has solar panels and an organic garden.  I have dreamed of living this way since first reading Thoreau and Emerson as a child. The desire has waxed and waned over the years as I have transitioned through various phases of consumerism.

Today I planted my garden. Well actually I just put a few seeds in pots and watered them. Mostly all I can see right now is dirt.

There are so many things currently in my life for which this is the perfect metaphor.

Patience is a virtue that popular culture not only doe not embrace it seems to scorn as it also seems to scorn embracing the passage of time. When I scan the titles of the checkout stand magazines I realize that every single one has at least on “get it now with little effort” article for peace, health and/or happiness and at least one reference to passing as “young”.

Farming in even the small way I am participating in it is an exercise in the opposite values. Growth has a schedule of its own, tasks that must be accomplished along the way with faithfulness and diligence, and ripening is not a negative but both the point and the product of time.

Here is what my suburban homesteading efforts look like today and a week ago. Very little progress can be measured, however excited those little green leaf heads made me, mostly dirt still but anything worth having is worth working and waiting for and I take this lesson into my other pursuits today.