Thank you for joining us!
First, a quick announcement, because it’s not every day that a dear friend starts a Substack…!
is an extremely talented artist and observer of sacred seasons, and if you like The Wildroot Parables then you will LOVE her new newsletter, Hearthstone Post! I guarantee that her words, images, and way of walking the sacred-everyday will delight and inspire you.Check out her introductory post HERE!
Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight:
wrote these words, in the midst of a longer (and very profound) comment:As I read this now, at work, the skies are calm and a dove paces in front of the office door, an obvious reminder of the Holy Spirit. Is there a better time to read about love than while observing a dove? Debatable.
Love is a command. Absolutely. Explicitly. Jesus tells us, "If you love me you will keep my commandments." And while the power of “the world” is constantly working to push us apart, the truth is that nothing can separate us from the love of God. But it is imperative we remember that to love God is to love one another. Indeed, we are his miracle his hands, his feet and his miracle-workers.
I really urge you to go and read Derek’s comment in full—what a picture he paints! Derek writes a newsletter here on Substack called Seeking The Narrow where he explores the ins and outs of Christian life in this wide world. Highly recommend checking it out!
If you want a chance to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!
Now, on with this week’s devotional…
despite my best efforts not everything succeeds and I find myself asking: is it worth doing over? but grace grows wild right outside the front door and shivers in the wind but does not break; grace grows free for all to harvest in every season, so I fill my basket with it again and again and once more.
Part of living a seasonal lifestyle is making mistakes and learning from them. One does not emerge from the womb knowing a skill; it requires patient repetition. And yes, sometimes failure.
Fireweed (known in Europe as “Rosebay Willowherb”) is a tall, stately wildflower that often appears after wildfires, hence its common name. It is edible and medicinal, and its leaves can be fermented and dried to make a healthful drink in much the same manner as the traditional tea plant (Camellia sinensis). It’s one of my favorite yearly rhythms to harvest, ferment, and dry fireweed leaves into this precious tea.
We have a few thriving stands of fireweed on the land here, but not all are suitable for tea-making, so I have to take care with my harvesting. This year, I harvested thoroughly from my favorite patch and set to work on the fermentation process.
But in my excitement, I cut corners. I didn’t use the proper container for fermenting. I knew better, and yet I was trying to speed up the process. Impatient.
Within a few days, my precious fireweed had gone moldy. Unusable.
All that work, all of that harvest, a waste.
I thought, perhaps, that would be it. No fresh tea for the year, a consequence. The other patches of fireweed around here are in suspicious spots where the dog likes to do his business, and others don’t get enough sun so they’re thin and reedy.
Oh well. Next year.
Until husband pointed out to me, “Hey, isn’t that fireweed growing out front? Hiding in the azaleas?”
Huh.
Sure enough, a lush stand of fireweed had snuck underneath the azaleas outside our front door when I wasn’t looking. Beautiful, leafy, gorgeous. A second chance I did not intend to waste.
I’ve started a new batch, and properly this time. Slowly, and with care.
We don’t always get a second chance to fix a mistake. But grace grows wild in hidden places, just outside of where we usually look.
Where the God of Second Chances sows the seed, there will always be another stand of redemptive green.
Thank you for reading!
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Well gosh, thank you so much for the generous shout-out, dear friend! And what an honor to share a space here with your beautifully redemptive tale of firewood.
I'm inclined toward impatience, wanting to skip the fermenting step and just get to the "voila!" moment in so many situations. My spiritual director had told me that maybe a love for the seasons was placed in my heart for a reason - to really learn the required patience of seasonality. Thank goodness for the wild-growing grace that blooms in charred places!
"Where the God of Second Chances sows the seed, there will always be another stand of redemptive green."
This needs to be translated into latin and put on a coat of arms. Beautiful!