The Good Shepherd’s Earth Day

(Posted April 19, 2024)

On this weekend when we spend time with Jesus as he refers to himself as The Good Shepherd, we realize that he’s calling to us to follow his lead and to be good shepherds of our earth. I spent part of the morning dreaming of the herbs and vegetables I’ll plant in my tiny garden. Then I found this beautiful poem by Katherine Riegel. I thought I’d share it to inspire your “good shepherding” of the earth this Spring.

What I Would Like to Grow in My Garden

by Katherine Riegel

Peonies, heavy and pink as ’80s bridesmaid dresses

and scented just the same. Sweet pea,

because I like clashing smells and the car

I drove in college was named that: a pea-green

Datsun with a tendency to backfire.

Sugar snap peas, which I might as well

call memory bites for how they taste like

being fourteen and still mourning the horse farm

I had been uprooted from at ten.

Also: sage, mint, and thyme—the clocks

of summer—and watermelon and blue lobelia.

Lavender for the bees and because I hate

all fake lavender smells. Tomatoes to cut

and place on toasted bread for BLTs, with or without

the b and the l. I’d like, too, to plant

the sweet alyssum that smells like honey and peace,

and for it to bloom even when it’s hot,

and also lilies, so I have something left

to look at when the rabbits come.

They always come. They are

always hungry. And I think I am done

protecting one sweet thing from another.