Virginia Creeper

I had a note planned for today. But today is actually now tomorrow because the hours ran out of the day.

It’s the Virginia Creeper’s fault.

No. Actually it’s some rose bushes in my brother’s neighborhood’s fault.

The roses were pretty so my parents and I had a discussion about our rose bush that led me to check on our rose bush and in the process notice a vine that was creeping up trees and all along the ground.

Virginia Creeper.

Convinced it wasn’t poisonous, I attacked the Virginia Creeper after supper tonight.

I pulled vines off of trees.

I pulled vines out of bushes.

I pulled vines out of the ground.

I found the mother vine that had tentacles half way across the yard.

I formed and popped a blister on my hand and I emerged from the three hour attack with at least three scratches on my skin.

And now I’m sore.

I was already sore from scrubbing a kitchen.

But now I’m sorer.

And I wish the Virginia Creeper would creep itself by to Virginia and stay.

Here’s what I learned today, though: It’s best to clean grease and dirt when they first appear rather than letting them build up for years, and it’s best to pull weeds and vines when they first grow rather than letting them grow out of control and suck life out of flowers, plants, bushes, and trees.

I know that neither of these things is profound. But I know that they are true.

Just ask the Virginia Creeper blister on my hand.

Get UnCARBONated

As I glanced through my Toyota Center Newsletter last week, I didn’t expect to find an article that I could use for work. But I did. The article was called “Get UnCARBONated,” and I was challenged by its closing points:

What can be done to improve our own carbon footprints without detracting from our quality of life? The answer is “carbon offsets.” According to the Collins English Dictionary, a carbon offset is “a compensatory measure made by an individual or company for carbon emissions, usually through sponsoring activities or projects which increase carbon dioxide absorption, such as tree planting.”

While simple behavior modifications are encouraged such as using public transportation, unplugging household items when they are not in use, and cutting back on unnecessary energy consumption, another simple way to improve your carbon footprint is by planting trees and supporting reforestation work efforts such as American Forests’ Global ReLeaf and Carbonfund.org. Reduced carbon emissions aren’t the only benefit of these efforts; reforestation and carbon offset projects also create jobs, preserve wildlife habitats, protect biodiversity and improve local environmental quality. It’s a win-win for you and your environment.After reading the article, I went a mini-hyper-focus about doing my part to improve my carbon footprint. Instead of leading a women’s retreat activity that originally called for cut flowers, I led the activity with plants (cactuses). When I saw a bamboo plant whose tag said, “O2 For You: Houseplants With A Purpose. Generates Oxygen. Adds humidity to room air during dry conditions. Creates healthier living environment. Purifies the air of impurities,” I decided to buy it. And then I finally decided to buy a new pot for the plant that I’ve had in my office since it was given to me as a thank you in the fall.

This morning, I named my plants Carl the Cactus, Bill the Bamboo, and Pete the Plant. This afternoon, my co-worker Donna and I repotted Pete. [Well, to be truthful, Donna repotted Pete and I observed and listened so that I could learn.] I am going to talk to and nurture Carl, Bill, and Pete and attempt to learn more about plants. I’m also going to look into reforestation efforts and promote carbon offsets as much as I can.

What about you?

Do you have plants/flowers and trees that you tend to? Do you name them? If so, what are their names?

Do you support reforestation or other tree planting efforts?

Have you made behavior modifications to improve your carbon footprint? If so, what are they?

Do you have something else to share about becoming UnCARBONated?

The Deanna Plant

Over fifteen years ago, through the Meredith Christian Association, I met a girl named Mandy. Little did I know that she would become one of the most influential people in my life. Mandy and I began our friendship as theology buddies and have continued our deep discussions on God, life, and love over the years. Mandy is a pastor now, and her sermons and writings always inspire and challenge me. On Monday, she sent me Sunday’s sermon and then waited for me to read. Last night, she said, “You really need to read my sermon, friend,” so I finally put everything on hold and did. When I got to the following excerpt, I knew why she was anxious for me to read. I. Love. This. Story! And I am so humbled and grateful to be a part:

The physicality of birth and death (being born again and dying and resurrection) are messy. It is so very bodily to be born and to die. So it is that Jesus paints for us – in this utterly incarnational way - the picture of what and who he truly is and in doing so beckons us to ponder who it is we really are too. Are we some version of zombie-beings like the story of Ezekiel and the Valley of Dry Bones conjures up? People who walk through life without truly living? Do we sleep-walk through our days? Are we so full of shame that we can’t claim life like Judas? Are we hopeless and stuck forever exactly as we are like the Tuck family in Tuck Everlasting? Or are we continually growing more closely into the wholeness and fullness of ourselves? It is a journey of being refined, renewed and resurrected. Indeed, we continue to live out a process of dying and being resurrected – that is what it means to believe in Jesus.

Indeed, it is in all those deaths that happen throughout our life that we are truly transformed. When Nicodemus struggled with how to be born a second time, he was struggling with dying to one life and being resurrected into another. When we walk through the waters of baptism we act out this idea symbolically surrendering ourselves to death and being raised into a new life. We know these moments from our own lives – when we feel utterly broken and lost, when we let go, and when by God’s grace we find ourselves renewed, resurrected, and awakened to new possibilities, new chances, and new life.

Several years ago, my dear friend, Deanna, trusted me to walk with her into her darkest days – into her tomb, if you will. A sudden death and changing relationships left her in ruins and a flood of the hate-filled scripts of her life engulfed her and she found herself surrounded by grief, sadness and despair. We spent hours talking. She faithfully met with a counselor and she faithfully put one foot in front of the other even though she couldn’t fully see the way for all those grave clothes.

During this same time, we had a minor tragedy at our house. There was a houseplant sitting on a low shelf and one day an imaginative little boy decided to challenge it to a sword fight using a ruler as his mighty sword. I walked into the room just in time to see a chunk of the plant fly off and onto the floor. I gasped and ran over saying, “What have you done? How careless! How thoughtless! And such an innocent victim…” and a lecture about how mommy treasures her plants and they aren’t to be wacked ensued. It sounds silly but I grieved over that plant’s severed nub.

Nonetheless, I put the nub in a cup of water and watched and hoped that it might root. After awhile, it did! So I fixed a pot of soil and gently planted that nub. I found it a spot in the sunlight and went to work watering it, pulling off a leaf when it had dried up or turned yellow, and turning it periodically so it would grow tall and straight towards the sunlight. And it grew, and grew, and grew.

Somewhere along the way, I started calling that plant my, “Deanna Plant,” for somehow their journeys were parallel. With care, nurture, pruning, continual turning toward the light, she flourished too. If we look, we can see that resurrection is happening all around us.

You see, by saying he is the resurrection and life, Jesus isn’t saying there won’t be death, endings, sorrow, and grief. He isn’t saying that if we can just hold on that one of these days, in the sweet by and by, it will all be better. Jesus is saying that abundant life is ours for the claiming here and now if we can only dare to claim him. He is shouting to us in our darkest places, the tombs of our lives where we feel most alone, lost, and dead to come out! Come out and live!...

…We are a resurrection people. For we, like Mary and Martha, confess our belief in Jesus. Jesus is the resurrection and life. “Come out of your tomb and live,” he calls. Do we dare risk resurrection? Do we dare to live our lives abundantly? May it be so. Amen.
Yes. May it be so, friends. May it be so…

[And by the way...this picture IS the Deanna Plant :-). I met the plant the last time I visited Mandy’s house, and then she sent me the picture this morning :-).]