There is always a moment in between…in between what has just happened and what is about to be.  In the church world, we call this day during holy week, Holy Saturday.  Jesus takes his last breath but it will be another day before new life emerges or becomes apparent.  In that in between day, he is laid to rest in a tomb in a garden and those around him mourn. They all do it in different ways…they scatter, they hide, they weep and lament, they regret and they remember…and some of it, I am sure, happens all at once in our bodies.

This holy week is different than any other. Some moments I feel as though it is an extreme holy week and other moments it doesn’t feel like it at all while I stay inside and in self isolation from the world.  We experience loss like we never have before and I am certain that we will face new life as we have never before.

During these weeks at home, I have desperately tried to make our home cozier, cleaner, and more wonderful to reside in and a big part of that for me is our balcony.  I love gardening. At one point in my adult life, I lived in a house where we transformed most of our backyard into gardening space with veggies growing all over and fruit trees blossoming this time of year.  I started bee keeping and learning about cover crops for the in between times. I loved every second of it. I continuously added fruit and veggie space, starting to transform the front as well as the back.  In Oregon, if you aren’t growing things, you aren’t living in that state well. It is made for growing things.

This is the thing I miss the most about living in Berlin, a city of concrete and people. Yes, there is green space but there isn’t the gardening movement that I experienced in other cities I have lived, Portland and Chicago.  So this season I am putting my creativity to work as I try to transform the balcony into more garden and delight space.  Last year I grew a few tomatoes and a few herbs but this year I am moving into more gardening and decided to envision a lettuce wall. I have added to the herbs and am adding to the veggie aspect of our balcony. I am determined that there will be zucchini and tomatoes, spinach and lettuce and perhaps a little kale. It can happen. Our space is not huge and we still want to sit and delight in it…last year I cleaned it more and added lights to our great amusement.  I love sitting on the balcony in the summer with my coffee in the morning and I want it to be more lush and productive.

Yesterday in the midst of my having a migraine and recouping I wandered outside into the spring sun and yelped!  Ana looked up quickly, “what is it???”

On Good Friday my little seeds started to sprout and grow!!! It’s happening!!! If this works, it will be amazing!!

There IS new life! There IS hope in waiting! There IS green! Easter IS coming and we are ready for new!