Things are moving along nicely at Opal’s Farm. Many thanks to Ms. Smith’s Dunbar High School seniors who came out to help harvest and work the beds! We love our volunteers; especially the young people who come to work and learn about urban farming.
Giving Tuesday is one week from today.
Please give to Opal’s Farm on this special day of giving. Your donation to Unity Unlimited, Inc. and Opal’s Farm grows (quite literally) to bring fresh, healthy produce to area food deserts and neglected neighborhoods.
Giving Tuesday may be global but it’s never been more important to give to your local community. Every dollar you contribute to Opal’s Farm helps end food insecurity (a nice way of saying hunger) right here in Fort Worth; your neighbors and your community.
You can give via our Facebook Page, Opal’s Farm, or through the Unity Unlimited, Inc. website, www.unityunlimited.org
Thoughts From the Porch: A gorgeous Fall day greeted me this
morning as I stepped out on the porch. Every day is gorgeous in my mind, but
this morning was especially bright and inviting. My “porch time” has included an
email series I’ve been receiving from the Center for Action and Contemplation.
I’ve always appreciated Father Richard Rohr and I hope you will appreciate
today’s meditation as well.
Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Forty-eight
Economy:
Old and New
The Gospel Economy
Sunday, November 24, 2019
Jesus said to the host who had
invited him, “When you hold a lunch or dinner . . . invite the poor, the
crippled, the lame, the blind; and blessed indeed will you be because of their
inability to repay you.” —Luke
14:12-14
I’d like to begin this week’s meditations
by contrasting two economies or worldviews. The first economy is capitalism,
which is based on quid pro quo, reward and punishment thinking, and a
retributive notion of justice. This much service or this much product requires
this much payment or this much reward. It soon becomes the entire (and I do mean entire!) frame for
all of life, our fundamental relationships (even marriage and children), basic
self-image (“I deserve; you owe me; or I will be good and generous if it helps
me, too”), and a faulty foundation for our relationship with God.
We’ve got to admit, this system of
exchange seems reasonable to almost everybody today. And if we’re honest, it
makes sense to us, too. It just seems fair. The only trouble is, Jesus doesn’t
believe it at all, and he’s supposed to be our spiritual teacher. This might
just be at the heart of what we mean by real conversion to the Gospel
worldview, although few seem to have recognized this.
Let’s contrast this “meritocracy,”
punishment/reward economy—basic capitalism which we in the United States all
drink in with our mother’s milk—with what Jesus presents, which I’m going to
call a gift economy. [1] In a gift economy, there is
no equivalence between what we give and how much we get. Now I know we’re all
squirming. We don’t like it, because we feel we’ve worked hard to get to our
wonderful middle-class positions or wherever we are. We feel we have rights.
I admit that this position
satisfies the logical mind. At the same time, if we call ourselves Christians,
we have to deal with the actual Gospel. Now the only way we can do the great
turnaround and understand this is if we’ve lived through at least one
experience of being
given to without earning.
It’s called forgiveness, unconditional love, and mercy. If we’ve never
experienced unearned, undeserved love, we will stay in the capitalist worldview
where 2 + 2 = 4. I put in my 2, I get my 2 back. But we still remain very
unsure, if not angry, about any free health care (physical, mental, or
spiritual) or even free education, even though these benefits can be seen as
natural human rights that support and sustain peoples’ humanity. All too often,
we only want people like us to get free health care and education and bail outs.
Brothers and sisters, you and I
don’t “deserve” anything, anything. It’s all a gift. But until we begin to live
in the kingdom of God instead of the kingdoms of this world, we think, as most
Christians do, exactly like the world. We like the world of seemingly logical
equations. Basically, to understand the Gospel in its purity and in its
transformative power, we
have to stop counting, measuring, and weighing. We have to stop saying “I deserve” and deciding who does not deserve.
None of us “deserve”! Can we do that? It’s pretty hard . . . unless we’ve experienced
infinite mercy and realize that it’s
all a gift.
Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s
meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back
to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and
invitation.
[1] “A gift economy, gift culture, or gift exchange is a mode of
exchange where valuables are not traded or sold, but rather given without an
explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. This contrasts with a
barter economy or a market economy, where goods and services are primarily
exchanged for value received. Social norms and customs govern gift exchange.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy)
Thoughts From the Porch: It’s finally Fall in Texas. I was
greeted by temperatures in the forties, a crystal-clear morning, and the song
of birds that haven’t been around our area since last year. I haven’t put pen
to paper or keyboard to screen in a bit. I had a tinge of disappointment when I
realized this is the first October entry and there were only a couple for
September.
It’s been a difficult couple of months. Margaret went to the
hospital on Labor Day, came home two weeks later, and is back in the hospital
again. The only good news is that this time it’s for a broken leg. We were
heading to the porch when Maggie decided to bolt out the door, knocking her
over, and breaking the tibial plateau. Apparently, this a rare break and she’ll
have to keep pressure off the leg for the next twelve weeks. Leave it to us to
try and be unique…
Anyway, my trips are once again between home, hospital, and Opal’s Farm. It’s an all-to-familiar cycle I hope to break (no pun intended Baby!) soon. We’d certainly appreciate your prayers…
I found this gem in my morning meditation. Dorothy Day was
the founder of the Catholic Worker movement. She spent her life ministering to
“the least of these” – addicts, the homeless, the marginalized, and broken
people. She often wrote in her diary of the temptation to give up. She also
wrote of the reason that kept her going.
“Yes, I see only
too clearly how bad people are. I wish I did not see it so. It is my own sins
that give me clarity. If I did not bear the scars of so many sins to dim my
sight and dull my capacity for love and joy, then I would see Christ more
clearly in you all. I cannot worry much about your sins and miseries when I
have so many of my own. I can only love you all, poor fellow travelers, fellow
sufferers. I do not want to add one least straw to the burden you already
carry. My prayer from day to day is that God will so enlarge my heart that I
will see you all, and live with you all, in his love.”
Her honest look at herself – “the unwed pregnancy, her
quick temper and often biting tongue – that allowed her to show grace to
others.” (Phillip Yancey, What Good is God?). When I practice brutal
honesty with myself I too, find grace much easier to extend to others.
I’ve often heard others quote Jesus, “Let he who is
without sin cast the first stone” but all-too-often I fail to put those
words into practice. When I do, however, I find a peace I never dreamed
possible.
Down on the Farm: August is a busy
month at Opal’s Farm. The Texas summer reaches its apex in August and the
Spring garden crops are beginning to peter out. The summer squashes have about
run their course and the purple-hulled and black-eye peas are slowing in the
heat. We’ve been extremely blessed this year to have only had seven one
hundred-degree days. The average number by this time of year is eighteen. We’re
very careful in the heat: slow down, drink lots of water, and take more
frequent breaks in the shade of our only tree. When the “feels like”
temperature is in the triple digits it’s better to be safe than sorry. Heat
stroke is no joke!
The high temperatures haven’t
deterred our volunteers. A huge shout out to Harrison, Chuck,
Becca, and of course, Brendan for helping with harvesting and helping plant the
new Fall crops. As we transition to our fall planting there are beds to be
cleaned out, prepared, and seeded with all the great veggies that come in the
Fall. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love and appreciate our
volunteers and fellow “farmers”.
That’s why it’s difficult to write
today’s blog post. Many of you know one of our volunteers (and my trusted
assistant), Brendan O’Connell. Brendan has been with Opal’s Farm since we began
building the first beds and planting the first seeds. Not only has he put
countless hours of physical labor into the farm, he’s also shared ideas and
opened doors that have made our first growing season a success.
When Brendan contacted me about volunteering back in March, I had no idea how important he would become to Opal’s Farm or how much I would come to value his input, appreciate his hard work, and depend on him. For the first four months, it was Brendan who was right in the thick of things whether it was plowing, planting, or marketing.
Our First Cowtown Farmer’s Market
One day he mentioned one day that his school needed a title or job description for his volunteer work at the farm. He wasn’t sure what to put down on the paperwork, and quite honestly, neither was I. “Farmhand” was an understatement. He was far more than another hand. I wasn’t sure what to tell him. Until it dawned on me: he was the farm co-manager! It would be unfair to call him anything else. His sense of commitment and dedication to the mission of Opal’s Farm is indescribable.
Couldn’t have done it without Brendan – getting ready for our first crop!
Unfortunately, I knew his time would
come to an end. You see, Brendan leaves next week for the next step in his life
at Cornell University. He’ll be stopping by Cowtown Farmer’s Market briefly on
Saturday and leaving Tuesday. It’s a bittersweet moment for those of us who’ve
come to know Brendan over the last few months. We are extremely happy (and a
bit proud) for him and his new adventure, but it’s hard to see him leave (even
if we do get to see him at winter break).
Part of me is jealous, Brendan. For
those of you who don’t know, Cornell is in Ithaca, New York. Although Brendan
will be studying hard, he’ll be enjoying much cooler weather than those of us
here at the farm! Moreover, Ithaca has an actual Fall season and with it, the
accompanying explosion of color that will awe any good old Fort Worth native.
Winter will be a bit different from Fort Worth (what’s that white stuff called again?), but I’m happy to hear you bought your winter coat online rather than here. There’s not much of a market here for the kind of coats one you’ll need in New York…
Brendan, thank you for everything you’ve done for Opal’s Farm and thank you Mr. and Mrs. O’Connell for sharing your son with us. God’s blessings upon you all. We wish you adventure, happiness, and success in the coming school year. We look forward to seeing you this winter but please know you will be missed and thought of often.
“I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” —James Baldwin
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