Why I Cultivate

The word cultivate has particular significance and beauty to me. It not only represents the deep love that I hold for gardening but also in a single word it describes the deepest value of how I choose to live: affirming, nurturing and defending what is Good, True and Beautiful.

To cultivate with deliberate intention is an act of choice, courage and creative hope. It is an act of love and a step of faith. By definition it means to break up hard ground, to prepare for planting, to nurture. By practice it means to choose what I focus on, what I invest my life, energy, heart and strength in, and what I then to pass on to others. It also means guarding against those elements that threaten what I have chosen to nurture.

I cultivate as an offering of worship to our Creator and obedience to Him as my God and King. An essential tenet of what I believe is that good will always overcome evil — even when we do not live to see that in this world, that Light overcomes the darkness and the darkness will NEVER put it out,  that Beauty triumphs over destruction,  that He Who is Life has prevailed over death, and that this great Story we are living in has the very best of endings.

I am inspired by Philippians 4:8 ”For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].” (Amplified Version).

And grounded on Deuteronomy 30:19 – “I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live …“

Life is good. Cultivate it!