Daily Prompt; Free Association/ Daily Post

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Write down the first words that comes to mind when we say . . .

. . . home.

. . . soil.

. . . rain.

Use those words in the title of your post.

The memories of the home farm with the rich soil that soaked up the rains.

Home; For some reason I never think of my home I live in. I think back to the home of my parents. I don’t really have good memories of their latest home they lived in. They had built that home about five years before mom died.

If I go back to the home that stood there prior to my parents purchasing the piece of ground, that is where the good memories come to front and make me smile. Plenty of fun playing with cousins. Eating good food at Grandma’s house. This land held my grandma’s house first and then my parents.

The outhouse that we used to tell ghost stories about when all of us kids were outside playing at dusk. Riding bikes, walking back to the woods with granddad to pick hickory nuts. Working in the garden with the family. Yes, lots of wonderful memories.

Soil; watching granddad work the land. He farmed eighty acres. His tractor was not modern like the ones you see today. It was a gray tractor, I can remember this. He raised lots of corn.

Rain; The best thing I can remember about rain on the farm is we didn’t have to work in the garden. Instead there were plenty of produce waiting in the summer kitchen to be put up for the winter.

I helped to take corn off the cob so it could be frozen. It is still my favorite type of corn to eat today. I always pick frozen over canned. I helped to make tomato juice. I remember mom teaching me how to use the sieve to squish the juice out of the ripe tomatoes. There was always green beans to snap, potatoes to dig, and green peas to pop out of the pods.

My entire family froze and canned everything they could grow in the garden. So although we didn’t have to work in the garden during rainy days, we worked maybe harder putting stock up for the winters.

I miss those days. I don’t have the energy to do a big garden today. I don’t even have the space to put a garden. I would be interested in doing some patio gardens in clay pots. Maybe some cherry tomatoes and one plant of beef steak tomatoes for sandwiches. Another pot could hold some green bell peppers. The biggest challenge would be the deer that wander through the neighborhood. Would they eat the plants before they produced the gold or would they stop by for a snack of the ripe veggies. I don’t know how to deal with that. I do know that I hate paying high prices for organic. Organic to me is what we grew back in the day, but now we have to pay a higher price. To be able to go out my door and pick a pepper would be wonderful.

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The Sowing of Souls

In the middle of a flower

The petals hide the prize

Of what gives her life

And  waits to open to skies.

It needs nurtured

And watered and

Fed the right food

For it to turn out to be any good.

A strong sturdy stem

Holds the weight in its hand

And shows off the beauty

Of the soul that’s so grand.

The petals have opened

Her soul has been bared

People are looking

And some have stared.

They didn’t realize because no one asked

That God grew this flower for a very special task

Where no one had ever dared to look twice

Now they were saying, oh wow, she’s so nice.

So when you see someone you don’t really know

Nurture them with kind words and watch how they grow

Help them to blossom in who God hath made

Plant seeds in the sun, and not in the shade.

What I Want And Who I Am

Lavender (Photo credit: Pete Reed)

Each morning she awoke to the same routine. She put a pretty, flowery leisure dress on, her silk stockings, and black shoes, and the added touch was her straw hat to keep the sun out of her eyes.

She would fix herself a slice of toast, and take her pills with her cup of coffee, then she would go outside to the love of her life, her garden.

In this garden were many colorful flowers. You could see that much effort was placed in the seeding, as the tall ones were in the back with each row coming forth, growing shorter in height. Also, the colors were matching, blues and reds among each other, lavender and pinks in another part of the beds.

She would go to her shed and unlock it and take out her work gloves and the hoe. For however long it took, she would pick out each tiny weed, that had appeared between yesterday and today. She then hoed gently the dirt between each life and loosen it up so it had the best opportunity to breathe and grow. When she had this all done, she would step out of the beds and look at her work and smile. Lastly, she would turn the water on to the hose, and spread droplets to each flower, and they would thank her by giving her lots of bright, beautiful colors.

This woman is an example of being committed to something she loves. She never neglected her garden, even when she didn’t feel too well, or she had plans for the day.  Even when the summer was over, she would tend to the land, embedding fertilizer, and turning the ground for its rest during the cold days of winter.

Once winter got here and she could no longer work in her garden, she worked and planned for the new spring. She gazed over flower books, she sketched on paper, designs of how her next years bed would look, and once the new year arrived, she started placing her orders for new bulbs and seeds. Her walk with her garden never ended, and her love for it was with her each day.

This is how I want to be, but I am far from it. My walk with God. It is a personal issue with each of us, and yet it should be so noticed, the same as the woman in her garden.

We should read the bible daily, to fertilize our minds as she did her land. We should tend to our attitudes and make sure that what we show others is pleasing to God, just as her flowers showed the world who mattered most in her world.

We also need the right tools, a hoe to dig deeper into the word, and our hands to dig out the bad weeds that pop up in our lives each new day.

I want people to stand back and take notice of me, as the lady stood back and took notice of her flowers. I want all to notice and not to wonder where I stand in my life. They will wish for what I want, and I will sit with them and spread my seeds into their unfertilized minds. I will be the witness God wants me to be, and I too, will have a beautiful prize for the work I have done, a place waiting in heaven for me.