Composting for Fertile Soil

The seed sprouts and grows to bear fruit when it is in fertile soil. This is often due to the careful tending and preparation of the soil by the farmer. Indeed, one of the first things a farmer learns in biodynamics is how to compost.

Seeds that do not find their way to fertile soil but rather land on the path, a rocky place, or where a thicket grows, are not able to unfold the potential within them and reach maturity to bear fruit.

Where do we find ourselves today? Are we standing on the path, too exposed for anything to take root, or on the rocks, where what grows lacks strength and depth and remains shallow, or among thorns that overtake us?

Wherever we are, we are in our story, and though it may feel like this part of our story is a small plant that has died prematurely, or utter debris, it serves a vital role. We need not bury this part of our lives, or throw it away. Every part of our story, every story on the earth - the struggles, injustices, half-manifested dreams, joys and successes - is compostable. In fact, the earth needs these stories, for they are what will create fertile soil.

Our heart is where we can compost - our stories and others' stories, anything. Here, we can bring warmth and light and we can turn them.

How are our hearts today? When we check in, we can ask ourselves, "What can I place here today?" Many times we may find our hearts overwhelmed, and the stories within us and around us are too many, too heavy. There is a heart deep within each one of us that can bear it all. He is the very power of transformation - the light, warmth, the turning. We cannot and need not digest the world alone. The heart of Christ is open to us. May we work together transforming the earth through our stories.