Reflection: Squash Blossom 2017

This year marks ten years of keeping a small vegetable garden at the house and of enjoying its produce. But there's something more than the productivity of this truck patch that I have enjoyed over this past decade, and that is the beauty of the growth. Each year I have carved out time (even if it is just a few seconds) in the early morning to savor the beauty of the emergence of the squash blossom. My Shawnee ancestors and many other indigenous peoples have also made a practice of enjoying this natural beauty, and even incorporating it into jewelry, beadwork, and quillwork designs. It is also a tasty delicacy that can be enjoyed during the summer as a portent of more food to come from the various plants of this small garden.

These flowers are a gift that are shared most readily with those who wake up early to see the blossom fully opened. As the day progresses, the blossoms close, and so not everyone gets to witness these plants in their full splendor. Not everyone wakes up early. The squash blossoms do not grow alone, but there are clusters of these flowers along each squash vine, some of the blossoms have squash attached, and others are simply the blooms themselves. And yet, each one contributes to the strength, growth, and development of the plant.

I savor the early morning moments I have each year with the squash blossom as well as the rest of the garden. In a college town, things seem to get moving pretty quickly, and there are many blessings to be found in the stillness and the quiet in the early morning hours. The blessings don't stop as the day moves forward; they just change in their shape and texture. Like the blessing of watching my ten month old daughter enjoy a tomato fresh from the vine.

Seeing her enjoy this makes me wonder if that was part of why my dad worked so hard in our gardens growing up. Not only did he get to watch the blessings of growth and development happen after seeds were planted in the garden, but he also had the joy of watching us kids run out to the garden to grab a tomato or a green onion or some other snack after school. There's a blessing that comes from being able to provide for others, especially when we can see that provision savored. It kind of reminds me of this video that Nuru made a few years ago highlighting the story of one of the farmers in Kenya with whom we worked, Joshua.



There are many blessings to be discovered and enjoyed as we spend time with the earth, and learn to be better stewards of the small corners where we live. I don't know if you have ever planted a garden or not, but there is a bounty beyond the early and late harvests to be found in working with the soil. Whether or not you plant a garden, may you find time in your day to savor and enjoy the beauty that the Creator has strewn all around us!

Flooded Basement Welcome Home?

So it's been a while since I last blogged, and I thought I'd be starting off by sharing one of several really cool stories from my last two weeks of traveling. Instead, I will share an unpleasant surprise that greeted me upon my arrival.

Around 630PM Sunday night, I pulled up to my house with Jamie to pick up a couple of gift cards that we were going to take to sozo a local coffee house some friends and I started in Morgantown back in 2007 through the support of Chestnut Ridge Church. You see, there was this really cool group at sozo last night called Gift Card Giver. What they do is take unused or partially/mostly used gift cards and give them out to people who are in need. (For example, they recently shared donated phone cards with recently rescued victims of human trafficking. These children were able to contact their family for the first time in years because of donated phone cards!)

Instead of running down with my Panera and Applebee's gift cards as planned, I was halted by the appearance of a rug that I had seen in my laundry room sitting outside in my driveway. It was damp, but drying out. I began to wonder if the washer had overflowed, but I found out quickly that my home had fallen victim to a far worse fate--the AC drain line had clogged. If you've never experienced this phenomenon before, let me tell you, several gallons of water condense and fall into a drain pan and then run down a drain line each day during the summer. That's how it works, unless the line becomes clogged. Then, the pan overflows, and several gallons of water pour all over one's floor. I think I went through every towel in the house trying to sop up water from my carpeted basement floor.

It took me a while to figure out that it was the AC, but it was actually a relief when I solved the mystery. You see, a clogged drainage line is pretty easy to fix. Here's how I did it. I brought a garden hose into the house, and stuck the nozzle into the drainage line. First I made sure the clog wasn't away from the AC unit (it's much easier to push blockage downstream into a larger line.) It was clearly a problem near the unit itself, so I used the hose to apply back pressure and blow the blockage out of the drainage pipe. It probably would have been a really messy ordeal, had there not been a very significantly messy situation in my basement before this.

Two hours later, and I had missed the event at sozo, but I had solved the mysterious appearance of water in my basement. Now my next challenge is getting my basement floor dried out before there's a massive growth of mold, and removing the musty smell of wet carpet from the space in an expeditious manner.

Anybody got a handy tip? Hopefully this blog post will help anybody who experiences a clogged AC drainage line in their home. From what I've read, they are inevitable. I also found this website handy in my troubleshooting. It was quite the welcome home, but I'm glad that at least it was an easily solvable problem.

Abigail Ryan Cogar

Abigail Ryan Cogar, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

Wow!

I just met the most beautiful little girl the other day. I was able to see my old roommate's little 2 month old daughter for the first time. In the picture, you can see her posing on a blanket that my mother crocheted specifically for her.

As a single guy, I've tended to avoid a lot of interaction with wee children (as most single guys do). Partly because of the awkward way people look at you. Partly out of a reverent fear and awe of something so miraculous and beautiful.

Now, as a result of some work God has been doing in me, I don't want to miss out on fully appreciating little miracles like Abigail. When I visited, I held her. I danced with her. I sang to her. I talked to her. Children are so beautiful, and so delicate. I am so glad I am able to enjoy this wonderful gift from God.

If you are a person who avoids children, you are definitely missing out. It's cool to think that we as the people of God all share in the care for one another--including the infants and children of our communities.

Take some time and care for the infants and young people in your community. They represent the future of God's world.