Today I did not do all of what I wanted to do at the DMZ community garden or my growing power home model garden, but I did something. I am finding that when I am around and weather is permitting, it is good to do something consistently each day in my gardens. Like most things in life consistency pays off in gardening. You may never catch up with all there is to do but you will always be moving in the direction of a good and fruitful garden.

I called up north last night and talked to my daughter in law and grandson. The experiment in turning cow dung into worm compost is doing well. The worms are happy and the compost is looking more like rich soil. My eleven year old grandson is already talking about how much we can make selling this cow dung/worm casting fertilizer. I consistently say this is only an experiment and only time will tell if it is worthwhile and pays off. Right now we can only consistently care for the rows of compost and worms.

Consistency is related to persistency. I have been justly accused of being a very persistent person. I guess that is a good point for most persons except those who do not want to hear your consistent message in word or action.

Yesterday I wrote three theologians at Marquette University who teach morality and ethics. They are all great teachers but on the issue of the immorality of military values taught at Marquette they have been silent. If they respond that will be good, and if they ignore me, as they have in the past, that will be okay. Either way my message of Gospel values being contradicted by military values will be consistent.

In our Catholic faith there is something called the “consistent life ethic”. It means you take the same stand on the dignity of human life on war, death penalty and abortion issues. Sadly very few are consistent although the basic value of dignity of human life is the same for all three issues.

Jesus called persons who said one thing and did another thing “hypocrites.” I was reading something yesterday about how St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, was more concerned about change of heart not intellect. Consistency in life speaks to the heart. “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Matthew 15: 19)

So another lesson to learn from a garden is consistency. We are consistent gardeners that need to persistently care in all parts of life.

Gandhi says to speak truth to power. As in the garden, we must consistently work on this, no matter the cost or how long the effort. We must be consistent gardeners.

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