outWORD by Matte Downey

One of my planters this morning This morning was planting day on my balcony; I placed three small, toddler flowering plants in each of my terra cotta containers. One of the pots had some gnarly, root-laden dirt in it so before I started planting, I lugged it down 3 flights of stairs and emptied it in the backyard. I dug through the other 2 pots to loosen the dirt and remove any big roots. Dean had bought me a brand new, extra large bag of Miracle Gro potting soil, so I dragged the bag which was nearly half my body size over to the pots and began to transfer dirt from bag to pot. Of course, some of it ended up on strewn on the balcony, smudged on my pants, and wedged underneath my fingernails (despite wearing gloves). While I was in the process of digging in the dirt, it started to rain. It wasn't too bad, just a few sprinkles, so I carried on, picking up the pace. I made three holes in each pot, carefully lifted the toddler plants out of their plastic containers, sprinkled so...

A: Knock, knock! B: Who's there? A: Interrupting cow B: Interrupting c--- A: Moooooooooo! Timing is tricky. In comedy. In music. In cooking. In relationships. In life. Sometimes it is hard to know when the time is right for action and when it is better to wait. Let's ask the tomatoes for wisdom. I am not the world's greatest gardener by any means, but I have grown quite a few things in my day; when I was a child on the farm, my mother had the generous foresight to assign me two rows in her garden every year to plant whatever my little heart desired. So I grew the things I loved: corn, peas, watermelon, and one year, a whole row of bright red poppies. Now that I live in an urban setting, I grow things in pots on my balcony. This year I planted Sweet 'n' Neat Cherry tomatoes. The plant is doing better than I anticipated: very early it started to produce bunches of little green balls. Each day I go out, water it, and check for ripe fruit. Just because a tomat...

I love fruit. It is pretty much my favourite food group. Not only does it look great (much more colourful than steak or sausage), it is juicy and sweet and good for you! This spring, I decided to try growing a few plants on my balcony. Not only did I do the usual pot full of annual flowers, I dedicated a few pots of soil to tomatoes and also planted some watermelon seeds. As I have been somewhat occupied this spring and summer with trying to keep my plants healthy and growing, I have learned a few things about fruit. When I was asked to give a talk at a church meeting last night, I took some of the lessons I am learning about growing fruit and applied them to growing good spiritual fruit in our lives. Here, then, are some thoughts on fruit. 1. Fruit is a plant that contains its seeds . This means that fruit has the ability to reproduce itself. It carries an exponential factor. Not only is it tasty and attractive, but it is meant to produce more and more every year, just like ...

Today I planted some seeds. I planted thoughts: some about how good God is and some about how stupid people are. I planted ideas: some about how to get my work done this week and some about how to get out of commitments I have made. I planted words: words of kindness to a stranger and words of pride to a friend. I planted attitudes: admiration for some colleagues and judgments against some others. I planted pictures: beautiful yellow leaves on the trees outside and overpriced designer clothing that I will never be able to afford. I planted sounds: the laugh of Dean on the phone and the swearing of strangers on the street. I planted a few criticisms as well, mostly of myself. Some of my body, some of my tardiness, some of my lack of love for others. I planted a fantasy or two: one about praise I would get for an assignment and another about the look of disappointment on my professor's face when I failed to do well. A bit of doubt jumped in the ground, too. Self-doubt and doubt that ...