A Real Gardener is All About Touching

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.

It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.” ~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

I've always loved to read books.  I tried to pass that love on to my kids by reading to them from a very young age.  We've read stacks and stacks of books together over the years - all sorts of books, from Chronicles of Narnia, Pilgrim's Progress, to most of the classics.  It gives me great joy to see my kids reading.

One of the books we read was "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury.  The book's title is the temperature at which books burn.  This dystopian novel contains an unexpected quote about gardening that I cut and pasted at the top of this post.  Being a Christian, I don't agree with the first part of the quote.  My soul has a place to go when I die - Heaven!  The overall quote resonates with me, though, because it is about leaving a legacy. 

I would think that most people desire to leave the world in better shape than the way we found it.  We aim to change things for the better, to 'leave our mark' by touching things, investing time and energy, and molding them with your hands. Your kids can be your legacy.  Your kids can carry on your family name and the values you've tried to instill can be the torch that still burns after yours has been extinguished.

Bradbury's analogy of a someone who cuts the grass versus the gardener is a good one.  The grass cutter is a hireling, but a gardener is one who has gotten his hands dirty, tilling the soil, hoeing the rows, pulling the weeds.  The gardener, in a labor of love, amends the soil with organic material, minerals, and compost.  He or she feels connected to the soil and working in the garden is almost a spiritual exercise dating back to when God and Adam walked in the coolness of the evening.  The soil you've built and the tree you planted are here long after you are gone.  More than that, though, hopefully a legacy of deep faith taught to our kids will carry on after we're gone. 

Proverbs 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.”

Although that proverb is talking about material wealth, we know that fortunes can be squandered and be gone tomorrow, but a deep and abiding faith in Almighty God lasts for eternity!

Making your Mark

Throughout time, man has sought to 'make his mark,' leaving an impression or lasting legacy that goes on long after he returns to dust.  We all want to make a difference.  We want a life with purpose and meaning, right? Some seek to achieve this with innovative discoveries that change the quality of life for millions of people. Many can point to the completion of special projects at work as their lasting legacy. Others invest time in their offspring and make the world a better place through their progeny.  There's nothing wrong with any of that.

The other day I went to Google Earth and typed in my address.  Have you ever done this?  It is simply amazing and sort of underscores how small our world has become when you can type in an address and zoom in.  Here is an aerial view of Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  Fortunately you can't zoom in too close as there are times, I must admit, when I'm working outside that I don't have time to go indoors to the restroom.

A Bird's Eye View - Is Big Brother Watching?

The arrows in the photo below show four separate paddocks in the 'L-shaped' pasture behind the house. We rotate the cows through those paddocks as the grass grows to ensure that the cows are always eating from the freshest growth.

Paddocks in the pasture

The three arrows below point out our three Jersey milk cows, Daisy, Rosie and Maggie as they are grazing on a typical Spring/Summer day, unaware that they are being photographed from way up above.  I'm not sure if these are satellite photos or aerial photos, but it is interesting the detail that you can see.

This picture shows the three chicken tractors in the pasture.  The blue arrow points to one of the tractors.  If you look immediately behind it, you can see where the chickens in the tractor have eaten a lot of the grass, leaving empty, devoured, poop-filled landscape. Each day I push the tractor westward to fresh grass.  After a rain, the chicken poop will spur fresh, green growth in the brown areas, continuing a cycle that benefits both the soil, beast, and man.

Chicken tractors from space

This last picture is interesting to me for a couple of reasons.  First you can see in the middle left of the photograph, stretching vertically, our garden with rows of fresh produce growing.  Then, as the red arrow points out, you can see a trail worn in the grass running from north to south.  That trail is my "mark." Rainwater is collected off of our roof in rain collection tanks and I carry 5 gallon buckets of rainwater from the barrels and pour them into the cows' water troughs, which can be seen at the southern end of the trail. 

Blazing a trail

I hope the mark I leave after I'm gone is more permanent and substantial than this!  It is interesting to see what you're doing from a different perspective, though.  In creating an enduring legacy, we must think more than marks we leave on this world made by works or deeds.  In time, my 'mark' seen from space will be erased by the growth of grass and passage of time.  This is a temporary mark and unimportant and trivial in the grand scheme of things.  What permanent marks can I leave?  Have you thought about that?

In spiritual terms, our flesh will return to the dust it was created from back in the Garden.  But the soul - the soul is eternal.  In order to 'make a truly lasting mark,' Someone must first make His mark on you.  We must be purposeful in seeking out a relationship with our Creator, through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Our spiritual legacy is the one that truly matters and we'd be well-served to spend time building that relationship first.  When we know HIM, our lives will hopefully bear fruit and we'll be of service to those around us and help point the WAY to Christ.

Matthew 5:16

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 

On your mark, get set, GO!

A Family Legacy

Do you ever stop and think about what type of legacy you'll leave behind?  About what your kids will remember you by once you're gone?  About making memories and a creating a family identity that sets you apart and makes you different?  About what work ethic, values, integrity, and character traits that you've deposited in your children that will hopefully be passed down to theirs.  I think about this stuff a lot.


Benjamin fishing by the bridge at (Cub Scout) Camp Edgewood in Gillis, Louisiana  (One of my favorite pictures!)

I always wonder what steps I can take to instill in my kids timeless virtues and therefore, leave behind something of value that will carry forward those things our family cherishes.  Many of us are standing on the shoulders of our fathers.  Our lives today are shaped greatly by what our fathers gave us - and theirs by their fathers, and so on and so forth.  Our identity, in many cases, was largely determined generations ago.  Likewise, our kids' future is largely dependent on us and what we do.  That's a sobering thought.  It only takes one broken link in the chain and the work of generations of men and women can be brought to a screeching halt.

I'm not saying that it is all up to you, because it's not.  A child, and then a young man or young woman, has free will.  Once they are out from under your roof, they can make their own decisions - good or bad.  Sometimes things go awry despite our best intentions.


Foggy morning fishing

Faith, Hope, and Love.

First off, I want to pass along my Christian faith to my kids, fully aware that I can't make the decision to follow Christ for them.  That decision is theirs alone, but I have a great responsibility in conveying the message.  Just as Moses gave the commandments to the Israelites, we should teach (AND LIVE) the Gospel of Jesus Christ continually.

Deuteronomy 6:6-10
⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Secondly, as dark as this fallen world is, there is always hope and we should never give up.  There is hope in Christ.  There is hope in our fellow man.  There is hope in justice and that goodness and virtue and honor will prevail over evil.  I want my kids' eyes to be open to the evil that is in the world, but to never give up, never be complacent, never be pessimistic and never be apathetic.

Finally, there is love.  I want my kids to experience the love of Christ and to radiate that love to others in their path.  I want them to be considerate, thoughtful people that genuinely love other people and treat them as they expect to be treated.  Love never dies.

As a post script, I want them to share my love of the land, the smell of dirt, the enjoyment of watching things grow, the challenge of tending for God's creation and experiencing the joys (and sometimes sorrows) of that relationship with the land.  I want them to know how to work with their hands, grow healthy food, and enjoy a standard of living not measured by dollars, possessions, or other luxuries, but measured in love, peace and satisfaction that while they are living out lives of purpose on this earth, their real citizenship is in Heaven.

Our Maker's Acres Dirt!

  What kind of legacy will we leave and what can we do TODAY to shape that legacy?