Cultivating Your Soul

Years ago when I was in a seminar at Princeton, I remember one of my classmates always repeating this saying: “It’s not what it’s about.” Meaning that, for example, when someone comes home and gets mad at the dog they most likely are not actually angry at the dog, but instead are aggravated about something that happened to them at work. That saying gave me a new perspective, which made me look beyond an actual occurrence toward its deeper meaning.

I saw the same thing in an August 16th article in The New York Times entitled, Hope’s Two Acres. The article is about a farm run by recovering addicts from New York City. People whose lives have been shattered and destroyed but who now have a chance to cultivate kale, beets and lettuce. What they’re really cultivating, however, is sobriety. The farm is about what all farms are about – producing good things from the soil. But this farm is also about producing good things for the hearts and the souls of people.

It’s always refreshing to see people take positive steps to take charge of their lives and overcome the fear, the anxiety and the pain that drove them to seek solace in alcohol and drugs. So much of our lives are given over to the simple tasks of trying to get things done, to gain some sort of control over the pressures and responsibilities we all have to live with. For me, it’s refreshing to think that on the corner of Route 9 and Snake Hill Road there’s a roadside stand where you can see baskets of squash, herbs, lettuce, Swiss chard and tomatoes, among other things. The thing one probably would not notice is the people there who have seen a miracle happen in their lives.

Jesus always talked about how what a person is like on the inside is most important – the outer trappings can fool you. And for all of us, the job of working on the interior landscape of ourselves is difficult. No one can really see that growth until one day it actually takes place and you begin to blossom into the person you not only need to be, but want to be. And it’s always nice to be surprised when you discover there is more to a person than you first thought.