Well...it's official! I mailed my entry this morning to O, The Oprah Magazine for the Grow Your Life with Oprah and Bob Greene! sweepstakes. My daughters and I have been lifelong learners with Oprah, and I can think of no better vacation on this planet than a trip to Hawaii to hike with Oprah Winfrey and Bob Greene! Of course, I know that I am one of a gazillion entries...but in the words of Lloyd Christmas, "there is a chance."
I want to grow a garden ~ a narrative garden. Years ago, David and I attended a small country church that is an iconic reminder of times gone by. The church, which is over a hundred years old, has white clapboard siding with oversize windows and a raised front porch with hand-carved spindle railings. Situated on the front porch are two pairs of large doors on either side and four rocking chairs where people still sit and visit.
While we were there, a member of the church had an amazing dream that David and I have never forgotten. She saw the small country church surrounded by cars...even lined up and down the highway. She said that on the left side of the church was a perfectly designed garden. The plants were placed in rows so that every variety could be seen. For example, the strawberries were in front of the bell peppers, which were in front of the tomatoes, in front of the corn stalks, in front of the plum trees, in front of the pecan trees. No plants lacked importance as was evident by the visibility of their placement in the garden. The strawberries were just as sweet as the peaches, even though their plants differed greatly in size.
As she walked from this great garden to the front of the church, she saw visitors going in one pair of doors on the left side and coming out the other pair of doors on the right side. A group of people were seated on both sides of the doors and were greeting the visitors as they entered and exited the church. On one side, the seated group of people handed out seed packets and seedlings to the visitors entering the church, and on the other side, the seated group of people handed out fruit baskets of peaches, plums and strawberries, and bushel baskets of peas, corn, lima beans and squash ~ all fully grown fruits and vegetables gathered from the great garden. Hanging on the wall space between the two sets of doors was a sign that read, "Everything we grow here is to feed the children of God." Wow! What a dream!
That is the narrative garden of my dreams! As we enter this great universe, we come fully equipped with our very own seed packet. Sometimes we stay close to the ground and produce sweet fruits like strawberries, and sometimes we reach the heights of the tall pecan tree, which also produces the fruit of its kind. It doesn't matter if we grow bountiful bunches of bananas or a few ears of sweet yellow corn on a single stalk, what we have to offer as we exit this great garden is all that matters ~ everyone's story matters.
I just recently read the most "fantastic" children's book entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore by William Joyce. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my Gosh! I cannot put into words how much I gleaned from this book, which might have also originated from an amazing dream. The author uses the idea of books and stories as a brilliant metaphor for the greatest literary work of all ~ our own life story. While I am sure that children appreciate the book for the elaborate illustrations and imaginative story, I especially love these two simple excerpts: His life was a book of his own writing, one orderly page after another. He would open it every morning and write of his joys and sorrows, of all that he knew and everything that he hoped for. And my favorite ~ "Everyone's story matters," said Morris. And all the books agreed.
We are all cataloged in God's great universal library, and everyone's story matters. Everyday we make our worthy attempts to submit a life manuscript of our own writing...one orderly page after another. But, as Morris Lessmore learned, everyone's story matters, not because of what we know, but because of what we grow and what we share with others. The Bible states that "we are living epistles (life stories), read of all men", which brings me back to the church and the dream.
In that perfectly designed narrative garden, maybe I am a cucumber plant ~ a multi-tasking accessory fruit which grows low to the ground with spiraling tendrils and yields a processed pickle that can be both sweet and sour. I would love to be part of a great orchard where multitudes of people have to climb ladders just to gather my fruit, but that's probably not my life story. That orchard is where you find the Oprah Winfrey and Bob Greene stories.
As a long-time children's librarian and gardener, one thing I know for sure is that books and gardens are multipliers. If I read a great book, I immediately share it with my two daughters, then they share the book with their friends, and so on. If Oprah reads a book and shares it, the multiplication factor grows exponentially! And the same is true with gardens...If I spend $200 at the grocery store, my family can eat comfortably for a week; however, if I spend $200 on a garden, my family can eat comfortably for an entire winter! We can also apply this concept to our life story...what we grow, experience, create, and share with others multiplies!
Big sigh, oh well...my Grow Your Life entry is mailed. In that great garden of a gazillion entries, I am most likely a tiny parsley plant growing in a 4-inch clay pot on a windowsill. Still..."Everyone's story matters," said Morris. And I agree.
Dianne ; )
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