Fearless Faith

Garden-wise, early fall sometimes takes short shrift when it comes to impressing people. It is a time when things begin to look fairly tough in the stalk and dry on the edges. The flowers that gave their all through the summer months are yet game although it takes a little more intensive care to keep them at their best. The coleus is a slightly darker shade, the petunias less determined to offer up more blooms, and the garden produce a little less plump than a just a few days ago.

There are exceptions as always, but even those are not consistent year-to-year. The iron tough helianthus, a sure bet in the past, hasn’t mustered a single bloom worth bragging on this year. Rhubarb took the early drought hit and may or may not weather the winter. Horseradish as always is doing its thing, but it’s a bit woody and tough this year.

The clear winners, however, are always amazing and mostly related. A few sunflowers are of the same genus as helianthus and surprising durable when it comes to dips below freezing. Tall, sturdy and unwilling to take no for an answer when it comes to the growing season, sunflowers are the epitome of sticking it out till the last.

Another new arrival to the garden this year has lived up to expectations of the gathering fall by producing a purplish red stalk and a truly impressive seed head, the top of which is easily eight feet from the ground. The seeds produced are commonly described as a cross between whole wheat and brown rice. The particular kind in our garden is called an elephant head amaranth for obvious reasons.

For an early fall arrival, I confess to being thoroughly impressed. The beauty of the late summer/early fall plants in full bloom contradicts the many impressions of less value being correlated with aging. Take stock, look around, wisdom abounds in creation. “[Ask] the animals what they think — let them teach you; let the birds tell you what’s going on. Put your ear to the earth—learn the basics. Listen — the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories ... Isn’t this all just common sense, as common as the sense of taste? Do you think the elderly have a corner on wisdom, that you have to grow old before you understand life?” (Job 12:12, MSG)

Oscar Wilde famously suggested, “With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone.” That’s what we have each other for. With knowledge of genetics and novel treatments increasing exponentially, much more will yet be gained as we grow older and reach that early fall blooming stage. Stepping toward the unknown of the coming fall can be a little unsettling. Mark Twain notes its essentialness, however, in suggesting “If you carry a cat by the tail, you’ll learn something that you can learn in no other way.”

It’s all theory until you do it. If we’re fortunate, we’ll not only get through the fall intact, but be more prepared to weather the cold. What kind of faith sustains you? Is it young or old or something that encompasses both? It takes everyone, not just a few demanding voices here and there to make sense of it all.