Spring Field*

                            Spring Field

                                   
Spring planting season was an important part of the year on the farm where I grew up.  It was always exciting to see the transformation of a field that had been bare ground suddenly give rise to orderly rows of crops. 

It wasn't unusual to see a clump of trees growing in the middle of a field, and I remember that when I asked my father about the trees he told me the story of a particular clump of trees.  It turned out that when the field had been originally cleared there had been a lot of rocks which had to be picked up and set aside before the field could be planted.  The rocks had been piled in one central site, and over the years the trees had grown up around them since the soil hadn't been disturbed.  The trees also served the purpose of marking the area where the rocks had been piled so the farmer knew to avoid that spot.

                        Spring Field*
                
                                 Orderly lines
                                   fashion a pattern
                                   in newly-turned earth.

                                Seedlings in
                                  precise formation
                                  make way for the
                                  wisdom figure
                                  in their midst;
                                  acknowledging the
                                  presence of One
                                  greater than they.

                    *from Fields of Grace, Everyday Encounters with the Holy by Cathy Scherer Stubbs