Pansy Patch

April 20, 2008

I have been writing a lot about my yard lately, and it truly is a beautiful surprise to watch all of the perennials come to life after the dreary winter. My only contribution to this hopeful picture has been a pansy patch behind the mailbox - annuals, not perennials.
It is a modest patch, bounded by scalloped bricks - a yellow and purple patchwork there at the corner of the drive -- determined to look bright, not shabby.
But that small patch required literally hours of work one fine Sunday. And it made me stop and think of that passage in the Bible in which Jesus compares souls to the different types of soil one can sow seed in. Rocky soil, fertile (but weedy) soil, good soil, etc.
If souls are anything like soil, God truly has His work cut out for him.
The place where I chose to plant my pansies was hard, very hard. Partly thanks to the cement in which the mailbox was sunk into the ground. But I had to have the pansies there. Some bright something was needed at that corner -- no matter how hard the ground was.
So, first I watered the area, and watered it. Of course, that meant dragging the hose all the way to the front corner of the property.
And I thought of all the trouble God goes to in order to water our souls, to make them softer and more receptive to His word. For me, that could have been all of the good experiences I had of Church and Christians in my early life. Bible school, Sunday school, kindly pastors.
After watering the area for my pansy patch, I had to go at it with a shovel and hoe because there was no way I could plant flowers where the grass was already growing. Our lives, too, can be overgrown with grass and weeds - distractions, obsessions. What-have-you. For me, the hardships of life have been like that shovel and hoe turning my weed-covered life over to reveal fresh soil and a different take on life and its meaning.
Could there really be something more important than temporal success? Early adulthood was definitely shovel and hoe time for me.
Even after I had turned the soil, it didn't look very inviting. It was rather rocky. So I spent some time clearing the patch and pitching the rocks into the ditch. Rooting out the major flaws in the garden. But even then, I worried for the flowers I would plant there. Would there be enough good soil for them to take root?
Luckily, I had bought a bag of good, rich garden soil at Lowe's. This I poured evenly into my little rectangle of a garden. Now I felt certain that the pansies would survive.
Before I could take the Christian life seriously, my soul needed a great deal of enriching. But I was truly blessed by becoming a Catholic in Memphis where there is a small but absolutely vibrant Catholic community. I learned my faith by watching and talking to lifelong and devoted Catholics and by reading books by many learned Catholics and converts to the Faith.
When the seeds of faith were finally planted, they took root. My conversion is the one decision in my life that I have not second-guessed - not even once. I am everlastingly grateful for being led to the Church. And humbled by it.
I know that each of us has a purpose, perhaps as humble as the purpose of my flower patch. To brighten a corner of the world. To be a beacon for even one person. That is enough.