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Program Notes or Transcript

What is a gardener’s biggest enemy?  Let me give you a hint: you’ll need a shovel to get to the roots of this riddle!  Hi, this is farmer Doug Flemming, joining you for another edition of Take Five and I’ve got some gardening tips for the soil of your soul…today on Take Five.  Take Five is a production of the Church of the Nazarene and this station.  Email me…radio@wmc-ap.org.

Across the street from my house sits an empty lot. For many years people have neglected and abused this piece of property.  It’s always overgrown with weeds and littered with cans, bottles, plastic and rocks.  But about a month ago my family decided to take matters into our own hands and transform this ugly, lifeless plot into a community garden.  The work has been extremely difficult. The ground was packed hard with debris. We have dug up hundreds of rocks and thrown away piles of garbage. But our persistence is paying off.  Right before our eyes, this barren plot is turning into a beautiful paradise.  Now that we have softened the soil and planted flowers and vegetables, the tough part is keeping out all the weeds.  And that is in my opinion the answer to my earlier question.  A gardener’s biggest enemy can be weeds. And the only way to win the war against weeds is to dig them out by the roots.  I’d like to share with you today some life lessons from my gardening experience, right after this track from…

Today’s Music: No Kinder Savior, Smalltown Poets

Just like the ugly field across from my house, our world can seem like a pretty ugly, barren place.  So many lives and spirits are choked or polluted by hopelessness, rejection, abuse.  They need to be revived.  But it requires that you and I be willing to cultivate kindness in our own lives so that we can share the fruits of kindness with other.  Famous poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it well when he wrote "Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits. Take care of your garden And keep out the weeds, Fill it with the sunshine of Kind words and kind deeds." 

So today, start with your own life, cultivate kindness within, then begin to spread the seeds of kindness to those around you.