I still have dirt under my fingernails. No matter how hard I scrub, the evidence of how I spent my morning uprooting the dandelion weeds from hell is still there. There’s some muddy residue on my sink I need to get to, and I have to sweep or vacuum up the trail of dirt, leaves and grass the dog and I trailed through the office, but I’ll get to that after I write this post.

What struck me as I was digging was that if I had pulled these weeds last year instead of ignoring the weed garden I was growing, they wouldn’t be so big, so deep, so hard to get out and so pervasive! Agh!

Then I thought about the Bible verse about seeds not growing on rocky ground, or growing well on some type of soil, but not on another. The seed in the reference was obviously not about dandelions. They grow anywhere! As I thought about that verse and the muddy mess I was making it occurred to me how rich gardening is with metaphor. If you are in a healing profession, work with people, are a minister or social worker - you really would benefit from starting even a small garden. What I noticed:

Soil grows stuff.
Soil is neutral. It will grow weeds, flowers, vegetables, whatever you plant - or that blows in - will usually grow. It’s up to you to decide what will grow in your garden. It’s up to you to tend it. If you ignore what is growing chances are by the time you decide you don’t want/like it there it’s too late to get rid of it without a lot of hard work. This includes your personal habits, thoughts, attitudes and morals/ethics.

Soil Preparation Matters.
Once I got all the weeds pulled out and the ground chopped up I thought, “Finally, now I can plant!” but then I remembered - no, I have to prepare the ground first. You don’t get rid of the bad habits and immediately start plugging in the good ones. You have to prepare the ground first. In my garden that means bringing in potting soil - rich black earth - and sand or lime. I’ll have to test it first and see. The ground here in Virginia is mostly clay, very acid, great for Azaleas, but lousy for vegetables without some tweaking. Tomatoes like a little more acid than other veggies and herbs and flowers have their own preferences. Either way, they’re like people. What works with one, won’t work so well with another. Introverts like one thing, extroverts like another. Learn all you can about what each person you’re working with needs to thrive before you start planting and growing! If you don’t do the prep work before you start planting your hard work could be wasted.

Gardening, healing and working with people is hard work.
Growing the good stuff takes more work than growing the bad stuff. Vegetables for instance need more time, attention and love than dandelion weeds. If you’re a parent, or work with people the obvious metaphor is that it takes more time, attention, nutrients to grow good people than bad. Bad habits, bad attitudes, bad anything grows like weeds in an unmonitored, unsupervised, untended garden. The longer you leave the garden/person untended, the deeper and more entrenched the weeds/bad habits become and the longer it takes to pull out the bad stuff. If you want to make a difference in a life you can’t be a fly-by healer, parent or pastor.

Size Matters.
My garden is small - only 2.5-feet by about 20-feet. It’s essentially the frontage plot to my office. Beyond the edges lies asphalt and a parking lot. I can’t imagine tending to something a quarter or half-acre large by myself. I don’t have the time, tools or energy. I might do it, but my yield won’t be as great or as good. If you want to be a good healer, pastor, parent etc. don’t take on more than you can comfortably handle. If you have two kids and a full-time job, don’t try to be all things to your kid’s soccer team too. Focus on what matters - raising your kids well. Ultimately they’re the ones who bear the fruit of your labors - not the neighbors. I don’t mean don’t help out, don’t contribute, don’t be there for their friends and classmates, but focus your efforts on them. THEY are your garden. Pastors, tend to the leaders in your church and let them in turn help their groups. Moses did it - so should you. Social workers and therapists - charge more for the clients you have. Don’t take on more clients and overextend yourself. Be invaluable to 20, rather than so-so to 60.

You take on your garden’s essence.
No matter how hard you try not to, you take on your garden’s essence. Serious gardeners always have something that identifies them as gardeners. Their tools, their boots, gloves, magazines, even the fresh flowers in the vase on their counters or table lets people know they are gardeners. The soil under their nails, the suntan/sunburn on their face (even with a hat!) lets others know what they do. Remember that who you choose to work with will remain with you as well - whether it’s the homeless, the victims of sexual or domestic abuse, couples, children - and understand that. Don’t be surprised when you become a magnet for the niche you find. If you don’t like prickly stuff - don’t grow cactus.

Good boundaries make good gardens.
I’m a boundary nut. I admit it. I learned late in life to set boundaries and they have made all the difference in my life. Gardens are the same. I have a herd of deer who pass through here every night. There’s also a family of raccoons and a possum or two. It won’t take long for them to notice my garden since nature is essentially comprised of a variety of sizes of furry stomachs on legs. Setting good boundaries, strong boundaries, means I can keep the critters out with the proper fencing, but allow the sun and rain in. As my plants grow I’ll stake them so they don’t spread out into the parking lot where they’re trampled. I have to communicate to the grounds crew who loves to spread poison and pesticides around the property that they are not to spray my garden. Does anyone know Spanish for “Don’t spray, weed whack or bother this plot!”? Set boundaries and remember that staking or restricting where a plant wants to go with where it’s healthier to grow applies to people (especially kids) too.

Clean your tools and put them away.
After digging, raking, sweeping and tending to my little plot of land I cleaned my tools. Leaving the mud and dirt on them would make them rust over time. It’s bad for the tools. It dulls them. If you work with people, clean your tools after you get home. Go for a walk. Take a shower. Take care of you. Letting the energy, the problems, the weight of your work with others weigh you down will wear you down. There’s a time to tend to the garden and a time to live. You are not betraying anyone when you have a live outside of your ministry, practice, coaching or work. Take a break. Get away from the work no matter how much you enjoy it. You will love it more when you are refreshed and recharged.

Enjoy the fruit. Share the Fruit.
There will come a time when your hard work pays off. Share the fruit. Encourage your clients to find their own gardens to tend. Send your well-raised and healthy kids out into the world. Enjoy what you have contributed to with your hard work. You are working with living beings - you can’t hoard them. Enjoy the harvest and start another garden. It’s the act of gardening itself that feeds you as much as what you produce.

I know - an unusually long post - but I hope you enjoyed it. Gardens are rich metaphors for so many things. I hope you start one - even if it’s a square foot garden or flower box on your deck or porch.