I have returned for a visit to my home state of Pennsylvania for my niece’s wedding.  I have been away for three months, immersed in the new and marvelous experience of living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.  And now not only am I in a different time zone, I am in a completely different season, region, and climate.  In Colorado it is just now turning to spring with the cottonwoods leafing and apple trees in blossom.  In Pennsylvania it is already summer, with temperatures in the 80’s and humidity nearing 90%. 

While I could very easily live without this humidity, I must say this emerald green world is amazing.  Right now I am sitting at the kitchen table at my parents’ home, gazing out the picture window as I type.  And I am staring at a world of green.  Aside from the gray-brown color of the tree trunks and branches and a smattering of humid white skies peeking through the leaves, all I see is green!  Green is such a soothing color.  The Creator knew what He was doing when He made growing things green. 

It never fails to amaze me how fast things grow out here.  If a meadow is left fallow and unmown for a decade, a young forest will have sprouted in that time.  If people didn’t labor to mow their lawns, their homes would soon be surrounded by trees.  If the transportation departments stopped their mowing of roadsides (and their unfortunate spraying of herbicides,) very quickly saplings would begin to sprout and encroach upon the roads.  If cracks and potholes were not patched, plants would begin growing in them even though surrounded by macadam and asphalt.  If cars ceased to travel, all the roads crisscrossing the country would eventually return to forest.

In addition to the trees, out here I see abundant grass and a profusion of flowers and herbs and “weeds.”  (Weeds have sometimes been defined as plants whose purpose we do not know, understand, or appreciate.  Many weeds have nutritional or medicinal value thereby qualifying as food or herbs.)  Where there is a smidgeon of earth out here, a plant of some kind is bound to grow.  As Av Singh says in his article “Weeds: Don’t Shoot the Messenger (Not Until You Understand the Message,)” nature abhors a vacuum, and when there is bare earth, Nature will hurry to cover it before it erodes.  Thus, if you are blessed to live in an area that receives rain, you can be assured of abundant vegetation.  Everywhere.

We live in an incredibly abundant and fertile world.  But we have become a bit blind to this abundance.  We have become accustomed instead to a world of commerce.  We have come to believe that if we don’t have money, we cannot survive.  But the reality is our long-ago ancestors did not rely on money to survive.  Instead they built homes from the materials which surrounded them.  They foraged, hunted, or grew their food.  They clothed themselves from the hides of animals and the crops they raised.  They got their water from springs and streams.  We need to remember that we are surrounded by everything that we need for our survival.  The Creator does not leave us stranded.

I am so grateful for the abundance of this natural world.  It continues to thrive and grow in spite of our abuse of it.  It gives us everything we need for our physical needs.  And it certainly can nourish our spirit as well.

Thank you for the incredible blessing of green, growing things.  Thank you that we have all that we need.  Blessings indeed abound!