a place of homeness

We visited with our friends Luke and Sarah for several days... We hadn't actually met them face to face before, but Paul and Sarah had interacted on a web forum where people discuss Christianity & politics (politics usually comes out on the losing end!) and had arranged a visit since they were practically on our path. They live in a nice little place, back a ways from the road, surround by the South Carolina woods, and have two little daughters and a baby son.

I was fascinated to hear about their intellectual and faith journey; they had come from believing in Christian Reconstructionism (a school of thought that essentially thinks Christians ought to be in charge of the government enforcing Old Testament laws on everyone) to a position where they believe that, as Sara put it, "Jesus and the State occupy the same space, and you have to choose where your allegiance lies." I have to say; I know all y'all (as they say down here!) won't necessarily be in agreement, but I am not willing to salute the flag anymore nor sing the national anthem. Sara has a point: these rituals, however disguised by what passes for common-sense, are rituals of worship. That they are truly worship is borne out by the fact that the State we're thus pledging to is the only entity in our lives that can order us to kill without incurring the moral condemnation of everybody we know. (I hope that sentence made sense! And again, not trying to be inflammatory, it just seemed relevant when talking about Sara and Luke to mention where I agree with them.)

We passed some happy days there, playing with the children (in the photo their oldest daughter Virginia is helping Paul hang up clothes), drinking tea and talking, helping with their chickens & organic garden, etc... Sara and I prepared a new bed that will be planted in the spring, using the organic "no-dig method". (I love it! How could you not love something called the "no-dig" method? Only thing better would be the "no-work-at-all" method!) We covered the alloted space first with fertilizing materials--compost & chicken manure/bedding (you have to use the bedding, b/c the most fertile stuff is actually the urine!)--then overlaid them with two or three layers of cardboard. This had to be food packaging, because that's the only way of guaranteeing the absence of toxic chemicals. Then enough leaf-mold (slightly decayed leaves) to make it look like a big leaf-pile! Then stack a few falled branches log-cabin style around the bed to make a raised edge, and voila! Wait till spring. The earthworms (or, in SC, fire-ants--can you believe they can be beneficial?) will be attracted to your compost & fertilizer, surface into it, eat it (in whatever stage of decomposition they prefer), and go back underground, fertilizing and aerating the soil as they go. After several months of this, your fertilizer will be nicely mixed into your soil in a far better way than you could have done--a way that aerates the soil rather than compacting it and killing your beneficial fungi and bacteria, as digging does--and all the plants that used to be there will be dead and decayed thanks to your cardboard cutting off their light. (The cardboard also rots, you don't need to remove it.) Continue placing fertilizer (compost, manure) and mulch (straw, leaf-mold) on the surface every year, and the process continues; your soil gets healthier every year.

Yeah, I know; that was a bit long if you're not into gardening! I guess I'm just so excited about what I learn about this stuff; and as Paul points out, when I learn something I immediately want to teach it.

And, well... we just had a lovely time putting our feet under the same table and talking endlessly, and having family communion with them, and eating Sara's cookies, and... the last night about summed it up. For Luke's birthday we'd had a cookout and then a campfire, and after the neighbors they'd invited had left we stayed around the fire together and began to sing folk-songs. Sara sang one they'd written together for their children:


Refrain:
Sing O merry day
Brother Sun, lend your ray
Smile upon this happy morn
For to us a babe is born

And you, child, shall be called
Beloved of the Most High God
To join the ever-youthful throng
A singer of hosanna's song

Refrain

Take up your palm and shepherd's staff
Beckon the lion, bear and calf
Lead them to that holy hill
Where none shall ever hurt or kill

Refrain

The Prince of Peace has ridden by
And thrown down mountains lifted high
And raised the lowly, poor and least
To sit beside him at his feast.

Refrain

The battle's won, so run and play
Teach us to put our swords away
And lift our hands to take instead
A kingdom in this broken bread.


This is posted with Sara's permission and if you really like it and want to know the tune, call me and I'll sing it to you! (Or maybe I'll figure out a way to record it and post it up here.)

So we sat there together, in the glow of the fire, listening to each other's songs, and I felt a sense of... homeness. We live far from each other, and will only see each other now and then; but still we remind each other of what our true Home is like; and we will live there together someday.