Something wild and amazing happened in our backyard this summer.  Four little butternut squash plants, started from seeds stuck in a bit of dirt, grew wild at the back of our yard, beside the garage.  Surprised and amused at how they grew, we decided to let them spread, and see what happened.    

We had bought our house from a woman who loved flowers and flowering bushes and trees.  The enchanting little back yard had been so inviting.  But Terry and I love to grow things we can eat.  So in our first spring in our new home, we planted some beans and tomatoes and basil between the rose and lilac bushes.   The squirrels ate the beans, the hot sun was too harsh for the tomatoes, and the basil didn’t grow large.  We discovered that tomatoes and basil grow much better in a little strip of dirt beside the driveway.  Last summer when two volunteer squash plants grew out of our backyard compost pile, I replanted them beside the driveway.  One withered, but the other sent runners in the narrow space between two garages and produced ten butternut squashes.  So this spring, I planted two seedlings on each side of the garage, and stuck four more in the little plot my husband prepared in the back of the yard, mixing dirt with compost and half a bag of peat moss left by the previous owner.

Apparantly, the spot that was only mildly welcoming to tomatoes and basil was just right for the squash.  They grew.

And grew.  The sight of it filled me with joy at the fertility, creativity, and intelligence of the earth, which knows how to spread out like this, when given the right conditions and a chance to do what it loves to do: create life and grow.

At first, we moved the vines out of the way to mow the grass, and then set the vines back in place.  Then we stopped mowing under them, and let them just take over.

Under the big green leaves, squash plants were growing.

We had roses, tomatoes, and squash all mingled together.  But mostly squash!

We began harvesting, cooking butternut squash soup, which we love, and giving them away.

Before the first hard frost came, we finally cleared the vines off the yard and harvested the last remaining squashes.

From the four plants beside the driveway and the four in the backyard, we harvested 74 butternut squashes this year.  We’re delighted and thankful.  We’ll have butternut squash soup all winter.  We hope you enjoyed seeing the bit of wildness that grew in our yard this summer.  Perhaps it will give you ideas for next spring.

Happy Thanksgiving!

@ 2019 Marcelle Martin

At this Thanksgiving, I’m also thankful for the publication of my new book, A Guide to Faithfulness Groups, which explains what faithfulness is and how it can be cultivated by a community that practices ways to listen inwardly together for divine guidance.  The practice of faithfulness groups supports individuals of any faith to allow the work of the Spirit to become manifest through them and their communities.

In the 25-minute video, An Introduction to Faithfulness Groups, seven Friends speak about Faithfulness Groups and their potential for renewing spiritual vitality.

A one-day workshop, Faithfulness Groups: A Deeper Awareness, was video-recorded in November 2019 and is available to watch for free. More details can be found at: https://releasingministry.org/releasing-ministry-alliance-opps

Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey describes the transformational spiritual journey of the first Quakers. Focusing on ten elements, this book is a guide to a Spirit-filled life in this world, in our time. The book was designed to be a resource for both individuals and groups to explore their spiritual experiences. It describes the journey of faithfulness that leads people to actively engage in God’s work of making this world a better place for all.   Our Life is Love has been reviewed by Marty Grundy in Friends Journal, by Carole Spencer in Quaker Religious Thought, and by Stuart Masters on A Quaker Stew.

Both Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey  and A Guide to Faithfulness Groups are available from Inner Light Books in hardback, paperback, and ebook. (An excerpt and a study guide are also available on that website for Our Life is Love: the Quaker Spiritual Journey.)

To order multiple copies of either book, postage free, contact us.

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