Like many gardens locally, ours has an out of the way patch optimistically graced with the appellation of Compost Heap.  Compost is an interesting concept.  Take a random accumulation of grass cuttings, leaves, kitchen fruit and veg, the contents of the vacuum cleaner, insects, enzymes, microbes and much, much more; leave it for a year or so to gently marinade and then something useful should emerge.

Now that the grass has started growing once more, a fresh space was needed for this year’s cuttings. Bank Holiday Monday found me, armed with fork and shovel, moving the compost heaps.  After 2 hours or so of steady work not much appeared to have changed; there was little to show for my efforts.  This corner of the garden looked a little tidier but none of the heaps has moved more than 3 yds.  Yet, for all that, several things had happened.  Two hours with fork and spade constituted a good work out; the exercise was good for me.  Then, although they look similar, the compost piles are no longer the same.  Compost piles need to be turned; their contents freshly mixed.  Combining different piles, different ingredients all helps the process of turning waste matter to wanted matter.  We now have 2 piles of matter still marinading, and an empty space ready to start afresh.  More importantly, we also have fresh compost ready to use.

Largely unseen by us, nature takes what we call waste and processes it back into something useful, fuelling the ongoing cycle of life.  It’s not just garden compost; God can work the same way with us.  Painful experiences, wrong turnings in life, dead ends where we see ourselves stuck; from time to time we need to be moved, separated, then put back together in different ways.  Then we will also be ready to bring fresh life.

Rev Philip

The Pew Sheet for 6 June 2021 can be found here