TENDING THE GARDEN

TENDING THE GARDEN

The first story of us, humans, was in the Garden of Eden. Eden was a sheltered, beautiful, self- sustaining place that we were safe and were not exposed to anything bad. Everything was provided for us. We didn’t have to work to maintain it, grow our food or worry about anything. We rejected it. We wanted all of the knowledge and to do it on our own. We wanted to be ‘all that’. We wanted to feed that addiction of ‘feeling right’ instead of being right…God’s way.

There is no need to blame Adam and Eve because we have made the same choice over and over and over again. Now we are to the point, a true tipping point, that we have screwed everything up so much that it will take a vast majority of the people to begin to try to fix it.

The plants of all kinds from fruits to vegetables to trees to all flora ( all plants) and fauna ( animals) were brilliantly designed by God to create and diverse, interdependent, self-sustaining, renewable, healthy and beautiful world. Nothing goes to waste. Everything feeds each other. Death becomes decay that is good for the soil. Good for all of the carbon elements found in our earth including oil. All of this strengthens and maintains our magnetosphere that protects us like a dome over a life system unique for us and only us.

It has taken us a very long time just to understand what we do now. All along the way until this point we have been so full of ourselves that we have really made a mess of things. Instead of reviewing everything that we’ve done we have always added onto what we were doing before because ” surely we are right…right? Of course we are. “WRONG!” We wait until “you know what” hits the fan and then we scramble to try to fix it. How many animal species have gone extinct or nearly been wiped out before we say “stop!”. The Dust Bowl of the 30s was a result of improper farming techniques. With very little rain and drought conditions our choices became evident as cataclysmic. We had to regroup. This time however, we don’t just have one region of one country or this area or that area of one continent, it is now world wide.

We have all of the “green” people confused they’re saying carbon dioxide is poison when in fact it is what we, humans, exhale it from our bodies and it is what plants take in. Plants put out oxygen and then in turn we take that in. We have green speaking people wasting fuel flying around in private jets living in huge, huge houses wasting all kinds of resources trying to sell us their ‘snake oil’ so they themselves can make money on the “green” crisis and the fear that they can generate.

So on our own what can we do? We could start by planting more  plants instead of so much grass. The grass is necessary so that we hold the dirt down and don’t create and new global dust bowl, but native natural plants will do the same.

Then we need to rethink what we’ve been doing to maintain our yards to that luxury carpet like grass with no weeds. We use chemicals inappropriate to maintaining excellent ground water.

Note: almost everything that we deal with in life is a chemical. A combination of molecules, some God given use  ,,“as is” and others we have warped and use them for results we want. Some of the results themselves we live to regret and try to restore and recover. While some of the effects we get from the processes have serious punches that are really hard to live with or correct.

This battle that we create with ourselves happens every day.  NaCl is the scientific notation of a compound of two items of the Table of Elements. It is Sodium Chloride, salt. Salt is as natural as we can get, ,. Salt of the earth” so to speak. We need salt to live without it we die. Yet when most people see this, they think chemical. The truth would be that a chemical is something that we arrive at by a process, not naturally occurring ” as is”. Every time we cook we arecreating chemicals. Even if we just take healthy vegetables, olive oil and fresh herbs and cook them together, we are changing everything in the pan by a process.

Chemicals are NOT A BAD THING, there are just appropriate reasons and ways to use them or not. If we truly want things ,’ as is”, do we want to bathe and drink water from a nearby river or do we want it tested (chemically) and treated (chemically) to make sure it is safe? Chemicals are not a bad thing. It is how we use them that could be.

Plants have offered up 60-70 % of our modern day pharmacopeia (medicines). We saw the qualities in plants and refined them out then controlled the dosage and voila, the drug. A perfect example of good vs. evil would be the Poppy. We learned of morphine which thank God saves people from pain, but here come the evil thugs again with heroine and other things that destroy us. We found Aspirin from the bark of a Willow tree and digitalis from Foxglove that was originally used for poison killing people by causing a heart attack. Would we be that open minded now? How many plants have we used incorrectly for so long that we don’t even consider re-examining them for something beneficial like tobacco?

Now we have a new problem. We have genetically altered so many plants, so very many plants, that we might have eliminated the cures for many things including diseases. We thought we knew what we wanted. We now have plants that grow everywhere not just their native region. We have hybrids that produce better yields but do we whack out something important to our bodies? Maybe we destroyed something that worked with the other constituents of the plants to help it be assimilated correctly for our benefit when we digest it. LSD comes from wheat. Okay, we don’t want to go on an acid trip every time that we eat wheat, but what did it really do? We now see a resurgence of gluten problems so have we overdone it? What exactly have we overdone? We changed what?

Then we go back to whole grains in our breads and cereals and so forth but what are we really eating now, the whole grain of what? Genetically altered hybrids that are possibly not balanced with things that we didn’t know existed much less benefited us and now we are having problems? Our ancestors bleached wheat for a reason. They didn’t just put in extra step of work to make things harder. Why? What have we done?

We have thugs from seed companies at harvest time that make sure farmers plant no seed from their last plantings that have now matured. This is so wrong. All of it to interfere with God’s great plan as if we had a better idea. How could we be so foolish?

We have even engineered so many hybrid flowers and trees because we wanted them bigger and better and to grow almost anywhere. We can now buy trees that will have five (that’s 5) different kinds of apples or pears on them, really? How about the fruit salad trees with nectarines, peaches, plums and apricots all on the same tree? Yea, let’s combine everything like that and when weather or disease wipe them out we won’t be losing one crop, one kind of food foe the year, we will be 4 or 5 at the same time! That is really special!

Especially insane, is that  now we stand at a crossroads of “unintended consequences because the bees don’t recognize a lot of these things as something that they want to pollinate. Estimates say that 35-45% of everything that we want to grow, especially our food, depends on bees to pollinate. If the bees stop, we are screwed. Some may think that, that really is no big deal. Really if you look at just the food one restaurant throws away in one day, it is obvious that no one needs food and doesn’t have enough respect or gratitude for food to save what they didn’t eat for lunch the next day. So 35-45% will barely be missed. WRONG! What will be missing? It won’t be a little bit of everything because there won’t be everything anymore. If one crop fails to make it could mean all different kinds of food that we are accustomed to eating won’t be available because that particular food was used in the production of all kinds of other food.

I personally don’t believe that only 35-45% of our food will be effected. There will be a chain of unexpected events if something that huge and destructive would happen. Without natural diversity in the plant kingdom when a disease or a parasite comes along, all of the plants with the same genealogy, all, are for the taking and all will be ruined.

God’s plan of  survival of the fittest has been greatly interfered with. Even though we took traits of plants that we liked and combined them it doesn’t mean that they are the strongest by any means. What have we done?

There is a growing number of people that are aware of this problem and have been or are just beginning to plant native natural plants of the original genome before mankind jacked it up. So many people care about these things but they didn’t know. If everyone planted one native natural plant in their yard or balcony it would make a phenomenal difference to the bees and the rest of our plant world.

Even the big box stores have begun to carry native naturals. Can you imagine the logistics of that? So many stores and plant regions are small and large and long and skinny or fat and small and don’t pay  any attention to state, country borders. But yet, they felt that it is worth it. As people we can’t have the plant kingdom fall apart and as businesses they won’t exist if everyone is starving to death. So very many people care so very deeply about these things that they would be more than willing to plant a native plant. As a matter of fact they would love to do it.

If we don’t get a grip on this the natural habitat of animals and wildlife will be devastated. These poor animals… they do what God designed them for and they are happy, just fine doing it. People come along and mess it up and they wonder why do they have to suffer? Even the current migration of animal species into new territories is our fault. They are everywhere now. Take the pythons in Florida, for example. They are doing what pythons do. Eat, grow and reproduce, over and over again. Wildlife experts estimate that these pythons could eliminate a lot of the populations of native animals. That’s great.(NOT!) We had zoos and sanctuaries destroyed in hurricane Andrew where animals escaped, were never caught and started breeding. then the animal traffickers that bring animals into this country illegally for sale $$$ and don’t care what happens to them or the region’s ecosystem. Animal trafficking is in the top 5 on the hit list of illegal imports. Private owners let them loose when they decide that they really are wild animals  after all and they can’t take care of them anymore. Then they breed. So if pythons destroy the habitat , it is because people did it.

We have bred our animals into weak but desired hybrids and breeds. Dogs and horses, pigs and cows and so much of the animals no longer have the diversity or the benefit of survival of the fittest to carry on. Dog breeders will be the first to tell you what kind of health problems that certain breeds will probably have. They will also tell you that mutts, mixed breeds have a tendency to be healthier. Their genetic structure isn’t so warped and limited.

All animals really need our help right now. Even if their natural habitat has been restored and their numbers are up to good levels, they are at risk because our plant kingdom is at risk. They don’t deserve any of this crap. We have domestic animals in shelters that need good homes. THINK ABOUT THIS… For years we have subsidized farmers to not grow certain crops based on surplus and supply and demand accounting. Why don’t we subsidize dog breeders for a year so that they won’t breed and we can get a strong momentum going in getting these dogs and cats in shelters out and with families. Why not? Money? Or God?

Every case of the garden being screwed up or on the brink of destruction can be traced back to humans. Some were innocent mistakes. Farmers spread DDT on their crops because it was approved and ” cutting edge” science. We learned. But now we are at a tipping point where ‘the learning’ experience’ with what we’ve done now may be a clock that can’t be turned back. People are trying everywhere to find, buy and plant ‘heirloom seeds.’ The original plants like tomatoes or flowers basically all of them, need to be planted as fast as possible as many places as possible. We need to restore the garden as best we can. Yes, we can keep our prize winning hybrid roses, but why not plant a natural native flower next to it?

We are never satisfied with what God has done for us. In our pompous, foolish minds, we always think that we have a better idea. As in the beginning, we never knew the whole story. We never saw the big picture. We can’t wait like we usually do until we have oh #*!& moment because by then, it might be too late. We already have famine and starvation on a planet that was created by God with the most amazing systems of bounty and replacement and because we imagined money people starve. We try for bigger and better plants and harvests. It has to stop.

We will never run it perfectly. We can’t, we are not God. But we need to try. Christians, true Christians know that we are to be good stewards of this planet and be grateful for everything that we have. How many foolish, selfish people even think about the farmer and the land and the plants and how fortunate we are when they go to the store? We have been living in a system of endless bounty for so long that we can’t imagine that we could screw it up, surely not all of it anyway. Or could we? We need to research this and know what is going on…it is our planet too. We can each make a significant difference either for the better or the worse, it’s up to us. We don’t have to make mistakes in every category to start a snowball from hell rolling down hill and taking most of the plant and animal kingdom with it. Then all of the humans, the humpty dumpties of the world will follow soon after.

 

Genesis 1;11-12

And He said, ” Let the earth burst forth with every sort of grass and seed bearing plant, and fruit trees with seeds inside the fruit so that the seeds will produce the kinds of plants and fruits that they came from”. And so God was pleased.

MATTHEW 15;13-14

Jesus replied, “ Every plant not planted by my Father shall be rooted up, so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and both will fall into the ditch. Said Jesus Christ.

Revelation 22;2

….On each side of the river grew Trees of Life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month; the leaves were used for medicine to heal the people.