Walking the familiar paths over the labyrinth of Adytum’s 15 ¾ acres that has come from patient pruning, mowing and carting away to the compost piles, I ask God how much longer until we are ready for guests at Adytum? He often speaks on top of my thoughts. I think He does this so that I know there are two of us communing in the temple of my spirit. I can’t think two thoughts at once. I know His voice. He says, “soon, very soon”.
All my thoughts seem to focus on one point lately as we are four and a half years into our project: when will it be done? We expect concrete in a week and called in a truckload of topsoil today to lay down a lawn that will snug up against it.
All the other lawns here laid themselves down, so this one is a planned event with rock removal and grading involved. Donn handles that and I begin to work with what has evolved into a jungle; the tree plantation and planted beds.
Pacific Northwest rains, nurtured by a few hot days and exponential growth explodes. Late spring has that effect of putting a bit of stress on me in the attempt to stay at least a tiny bit ahead of it. I mowed grass today that was over my head as I sat high up in the tractor seat…then came to prune a large area we’ve been shaping under ancient Fir and Maple.
Now we’re in after a day of work on Adytum. How many days will it take to get her there- ready to invite others into the experience we cherish every day? As the end of the tunnel begins to be slightly illuminated we grow impatient. This has been a very long labor of love with other’s appreciation of the gift we’ve created for them ever in view. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of the B&B aspect of this sacred space…
Earlier this week, we returned from the Huntington Library and Gardens in California with great inspiration from a classical Chinese Garden. I took the pruning shears to all of our Japanese maples, as they had done at the gardens. We learned how to train the branches with wire, almost like creating a bonsai. Cutting off the lovely red branches of the Coral Bark Maple seemed a bit wasteful and a bit scary, but the end result was pure light and freeing up air to move within. It revealed the essence of the lovely young tree and its promise. Suddenly there was a new maturity and beauty that comes with age and experience in the trees. A sense they’d endured wind and rain and could actually stand tall in much worse. The blessing of sun and warmth evident in luxuriant delicate lace leaves.
I thought as I worked on tree after tree how much editing benefits us all; how the tasks we perform are a metaphor for our own lives. Why do we feel compelled to carry so much “dead wood” or wood that is simply not really contributing to the trajectory of our life which should be our chief end and matrix that will form the nucleus of our days?
We practice editing. We are giving away things daily to whoever seems to need them; an oak file cabinet today to our son who is a businessman in Nicaragua. Today we edit our meal, deciding we are too tired after all that work to really make a dinner and have apricots and nuts instead. Hopefully that will edit a bit of weight off the mid section.
When I work to shape the tree, tidying up the excess, I see in my mind’s eye what the finished product will look like in ten years and it excites me and animates me to push on even though I am tired. The potential released by my loving care, concern and vision is noteworthy.
God has pruned us lately, forcing us to pare down and focus time and energy on what adds to our core values and goals. We refine our time and place our energy directly to the things that last or bless others. Moses captured the essence of editing well when he recorded, “teach me to number my days so that I may present to Thee a heart of wisdom.”
I know our God sees our potential and gets excited about how helping us to leave off “dead wood” and less than important tasks and thoughts will create the masterpiece of a life He is aiming for. He is the penultimate gardener of the soul…
We know that less is more. When I release something, the thing I need comes in to fill its place with remarkable speed. Nature abhors a vacuum and seeks to refill itself. Editing simply prepares the way for more benefits and abundance with things appropriate for my need today as I change and grow more toward the perfection I am intended for.
I look to nature more and more for instruction as God speaks so clearly through Adytum just now. These lovely delicate maples will be living art- sculptures one day soon – which all those intended to come here will enjoy. My work this afternoon is a gift and it is a lesson. A gift to others. A gift to me from my Creator.
Editing is a way of life here, represented in nature. The way of nature is to pare down and live lean and to the core. We arrived home from our California trip to massive maple limbs that had self pared in a windstorm. All my lessons from Adytum this week are on paring down for that is the secret to more, to plenty. That is what I continually pray for as I realize we are stewards of this land, trying hard to multiply what God has given us and to care for it exceedingly well.
Editing releases the land of carrying excess “dead weight” and it releases me so that I create space to receive what I need for today. Cutting activities out of my day, purging my drawers so that order is achieved and maintained, giving away something daily that might be better enjoyed by someone else, eliminating thoughts that don’t lead to what I want…these are the things that God wants me to practice editing daily.
It isn’t like I didn’t already know it; agreeing to put extra effort to implementing the lesson is the goal. It is the path to more, and as we see from the Psalms 68 verse 19 ~ Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits…
Empty, edit, and make space for these benefits….
