<\/p>\n
I have returned for a visit to my home state of Pennsylvania for my niece\u2019s wedding.\u00a0 <\/span>I have been away for three months, immersed in the new and marvelous experience of living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.\u00a0 <\/span>And now not only am I in a different time zone, I am in a completely different season, region, and climate.\u00a0 <\/span>In Colorado it is just now turning to spring with the cottonwoods leafing and apple trees in blossom.\u00a0 <\/span>In Pennsylvania it is already summer, with temperatures in the 80\u2019s and humidity nearing 90%.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n While I could very easily live without this humidity, I must say this emerald green world is amazing.\u00a0 <\/span>Right now I am sitting at the kitchen table at my parents\u2019 home, gazing out the picture window as I type.\u00a0 <\/span>And I am staring at a world of green.\u00a0 <\/span>Aside from the gray-brown color of the tree trunks and branches and a smattering of humid white skies peeking through the leaves, all I see is green!\u00a0 <\/span>Green is such a soothing color.\u00a0 <\/span>The Creator knew what He was doing when He made growing things green.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n It never fails to amaze me how fast things grow out here.\u00a0 <\/span>If a meadow is left fallow and unmown for a decade, a young forest will have sprouted in that time.\u00a0 <\/span>If people didn\u2019t labor to mow their lawns, their homes would soon be surrounded by trees.\u00a0 <\/span>If the transportation departments stopped their mowing of roadsides (and their unfortunate spraying of herbicides,) very quickly saplings would begin to sprout and encroach upon the roads.\u00a0 <\/span>If cracks and potholes were not patched, plants would begin growing in them even though surrounded by macadam and asphalt.\u00a0 <\/span>If cars ceased to travel, all the roads crisscrossing the country would eventually return to forest.<\/p>\n In addition to the trees, out here I see abundant grass and a profusion of flowers and herbs and \u201cweeds.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>(Weeds have sometimes been defined as plants whose purpose we do not know, understand, or appreciate.\u00a0 <\/span>Many weeds have nutritional or medicinal value thereby qualifying as food or herbs.)\u00a0 <\/span>Where there is a smidgeon of earth out here, a plant of some kind is bound to grow.\u00a0 <\/span>As Av Singh says in his article \u201cWeeds: Don\u2019t Shoot the Messenger (Not Until You Understand the Message,)\u201d nature abhors a vacuum, and when there is bare earth, Nature will hurry to cover it before it erodes.\u00a0 <\/span>Thus, if you are blessed to live in an area that receives rain, you can be assured of abundant vegetation.\u00a0 <\/span>Everywhere.<\/p>\n We live in an incredibly abundant and fertile world.\u00a0 <\/span>But we have become a bit blind to this abundance.\u00a0 <\/span>We have become accustomed instead to a world of commerce.\u00a0 <\/span>We have come to believe that if we don\u2019t have money, we cannot survive.\u00a0 <\/span>But the reality is our long-ago ancestors did not rely on money to survive.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead they built homes from the materials which surrounded them.\u00a0 <\/span>They foraged, hunted, or grew their food.\u00a0 <\/span>They clothed themselves from the hides of animals and the crops they raised.\u00a0 <\/span>They got their water from springs and streams.\u00a0 <\/span>We need to remember that we are surrounded by everything that we need for our survival.\u00a0 <\/span>The Creator does not leave us stranded.<\/p>\n I am so grateful for the abundance of this natural world.\u00a0 <\/span>It continues to thrive and grow in spite of our abuse of it.\u00a0 <\/span>It gives us everything we need for our physical needs.\u00a0 <\/span>And it certainly can nourish our spirit as well.<\/p>\n Thank you for the incredible blessing of green, growing things.\u00a0 <\/span>Thank you that we have all that we need. \u00a0<\/span>Blessings indeed abound!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have returned for a visit to my home state of Pennsylvania for my niece\u2019s wedding.\u00a0 I have been away for three months, immersed in the new and marvelous experience of living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.\u00a0 And now not only am I in a different time zone, I am in a completely different season,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":553,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,57,3,60,61,30,5,9,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abundance","category-beauty","category-blessings","category-green","category-growing-things","category-nature","category-rain","category-spring","category-the-earth"],"yoast_head":"\n