I don’t understand why the earth is still so good to us.  I’ve got tomatoes, which is cool, but even more amazing is the fact that I got them from my own backyard!  All I did was put some seeds and plants in the ground and things I’d hoped for have been growing, and I’ve been harvesting!   Got zucchini too!

I’ve had tomatoes before, but they were from the store.  Who knows how or where they were grown.  The process is not as clear and near, so I don’t feel as connected to it, though I hope those who planted, tended, harvested, and transported the tomatoes were paid as fair a wage as the factory farm owner.

I really do think my tomatoes tasted better than the ones from the store, but I don’t think that is the main reason I appreciate them so much more; I think it’s because I am so much more connected to the process of their creation.  In fact, I think the quality of life has to do with the depth and breadth of our connection with it—whether vegetables, relationships, religious communities, or the world of peace and justice, which we have some responsibility to create.

Even while I am still gardening, it is exciting to hear that snow has come to the high country.  I’m going to connect with the snow next, and with the UU community of faith, which helps me keep believing in the goodness of life, and the good we can do together for one another and for others too.

The earth is good to us, and we have a responsibility to be good to it and to its inhabitants.  We have harvested; it’s time for fall planting, then after winter (when I won’t be hibernating), then will come the spring.  Let’s grow a more caring community and world reaching out from right here in our own backyards.

Rev. Dr. Stephan Papa