Finding Deeper Connection in Community Gardens

As I hope you've heard, Watertown is getting community gardens! The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first one, at 103 Nichols Avenue, is on June 12 from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. You should go. 

There's a revival of community gardening going on all over the country. Different people get involved for different reasons. For the Rev. Louise Forrest, gardening is a spiritual practice. I interviewed Louise, who is a Watertown resident and Episcopal priest, to hear more about  how faith and food come together for her.

Q: How is growing food a spiritual practice for you? 

A: Until I started growing vegetables in school yard gardens I didn't know the details of how a plant produces a pea or a tomato. Now I see the progress daily. The flowers precede the fruits, that yellow flower comes before the tomato. Along with this has come an understanding that the pollinators are essential in growing food. I am touched very deeply by this unfolding of Creation. I behold a delicate and dynamic system and feel reverence for this manifestation of the divine. I feel closer to God when I am growing food, especially when the food goes to the school cafeteria or a food pantry in Mattapan for Haitian immigrants.

Q: Is there a scripture passage or image that connects to the idea of community gardening?   A: Matt 13:45-46  "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls, who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it."  One has to seek out a plot in a community garden. Then the fun begins: you plant too much, or the weeds take over, or you are gone for two weeks and you come back to find a riot of summer zucchini. As you continue to try to grow things, you want to learn more and more about how to do it. The best resources often are the other gardeners in your community garden. That is one level to this parable. But the other is about relishing all that there is about being part of a community that grows together. The first taste of a fresh cherry tomato heated by the sun is unbelievable. You get hooked on community gardening then you start seeing connections about our food system in America and what is food security. It is very big, hence the sense that one would sell a lot to buy it.  How will children improve at school or be more physically fit after a summer working in a community garden. How will mothers and fathers feel after they have grown $200 worth of vegetables for $10 worth of seeds? There is Pearl of Great Price here.

Q. It's often said that "He who sings prays twice." Is it also true that "She who gardens prays twice"?  

A: I am sure that many people find God on Sunday morning participating in one of Americans' favorite leisure activities: gardening. Many people report that they feel calmer, or gardening gives them a chance to think about their day. Like prayer, gardening is a routine; you must repeat it often to get good results. Gardening requires you to work with more than your brain: touch, smell, use of big muscle groups, and taste. As an Anglican, whose prayer tradition involves standing, sitting, kneeling, tasting, and smelling, I love that!