Nathaniel - what an wonderful read you offered me to start my day! You weave ideas seamlessly and had me chuckle (love the Charlie Brown line), wonder, and nod along. We also have teenage chickens in our yard just now, and your compost confessional inspires for some changes in our set up. It is striking how spiritual insights and gardening seem a natural marriage (I often reflect on the parallels between dandelions and sin - if not uprooted they spread incessantly). Thanks again for your excellent post and looking forward to more!
The chickens love being in that compost, and my compost is the better for it. I just carry them over and pop them in, placing a bit of wood over the top to try and prevent them from getting out (although when they decide they’re done, they find their way out anyway). They spread it, mix it, add their own contribution to it, and it’s just a wonderful arrangement. Highly recommended.
I think “reading the weeds” will be the topic of another post at some point! There truly is a harvest of spiritual crops from a well-tended garden.
Jun 30, 2023·edited Jul 16, 2023Liked by Nate Marshall
“ The mysterious transformation of rotting stalks and burnt leaves and dying produce into nutritious soil has its analog in our souls. The wounds of inflicted sin become precious stones and pearls.”
Absolutely wonderful to read this morning. You are a gifted writer, sir. I love the idea that seems to be re-emerging that waste is a by-product of human sin rather than something allowed by God. Indeed, compost shows us that all of God’s creation has continual purpose.
Thanks for sharing your lesson with us. Thrilled to have you here on Substack and really looking forward to future essays.
Absolutely, I’ve really enjoyed your publication so far! My last two posts I’ve included some of my poetry, even though that’s not my typical wheelhouse. Would love your thoughts on it if you have time!
I haven’t had the chance to read the entirety of either piece but I read both poems: it’s like you’re from another era. They have a classical quality to their patterns that makes me feel that I’m reading something written in the 1800s. This is a good thing.
Well now I need to go read Cody's poems! The slug poem brought me to this essay too and now I am contemplating the nature of my compost pile as I look at okra that needs picking.
Let me know what you think! Giving you a free subscription so you can check them out, I have a few of them pay-walled because they are older than a year. Here are a few of the ones I have written:
Really gorgeous piece, Nathaniel, thank you! Too many lovely insights to recount.
The thinking on “waste” was very evocative for me. Our modern handling and thinking about waste in general is obviously broken, harmful, unsustainable - sinful. We need to work on correcting it. And so getting people to think about such in these terms is really important and I applaud this (as well as your efforts locally.)
Some thoughts on the “wounds change to pearls.” This is meant not from the perspective to minimize that sin hurts others, bur rather to soothe the suffering. It calls out that after enduring suffering/adversity, once wounds are fully healed and we truly can forgive, we necessarily grow from the experience. If nothing else, suffering caused by another’s sin teaches a compassionate person to avoid inflicting the same on another, to avoid the same sin inflicted upon them. It is one thing to be told sin is bad/wrong/harmful, it is another to experience the suffering caused by it. We can know how to better ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ knowing just how deep some pain gets. This is similar to the distinction of theory and practice, knowledge and wisdom.
The thanks is mutual, Ed! I appreciate you taking time to read and leave your thoughts.
I have some thoughts rolling around in my head about public sewerage infrastructure in relation to my thinking on “waste” that I’ll work on developing at some point. As a plumber I’m torn because sewers are, like, my thing, right? And yet...
You’ve offered the caveats that I would want to get across. It’s less about making light of someone’s pain now and more about offering hope for what could be on the other side of healing. I think we often mean well but end up being more like Job’s friends than we’d like to admit, even with the best of intentions.
This is a wonderful reflection on God’s power and goodness that leaves me in tears. One comment: I do believe many times I am oriented towards the good and fail miserably for many reasons. But there are also those times I hate to admit when I KNOW an action or attitude is wrong and I still give into it. As humans we do things we know to be wrong just because we want to. Unfortunately and to our ultimate pain and sorrow. But this essay has given me so much to think about and incorporate into my view of what can be redeemed! Thank you so much!
You’re so kind, Karen. Thank you for reading and leaving a comment.
This is a great addition. Some(most?)times the human heart and our own ways are truly something we can’t know! But we can trust that God’s grace will abound over and above our sin, heal our wounds and set all things to rights.
Yes. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” And, like Paul, we must leave ultimate motivations to the God who judges all things rightly, while continuing in self examination and confession. God bless you brother!
As a Christian who loves and appreciates God’s creation more and more all the time, this essay was so great to come across. I really love the analogy you drew here. I’ll be thinking about this for days. Also, I’ve been itching to start growing food, composting and get chickens and you this post just encouraged me to get on it. Excellent work. I look forward to future posts.
Your reflections on waste really stuck out to me. Ive thought about similar things recently. Ways that God can use things we see as trash or useless that he turns around and uses for His glory. I wrote a little something about that this week actually. I figured I’d share this with you. Hope you enjoy it.
Second of all, this is great and I enjoyed it very much. Our inability to hold things with a lose grip, making them available to God and others, is one of our greatest sins, I think. Hadden recently wrote a similar reflection to the both of us:
No kidding.... I’m around outside of Columbus. How about you? And thanks for the reference, but I already read that this morning and really really enjoyed it! Your essay had me thinking back to Haden’s actually.
Oh dang, you're DOWN there. I'm up in Cobb County, about halfway between Atlanta and the foot of the mountains. Glad you got to read that piece! It's a good one.
As a former atheist, confession is something I still struggle with. A lot. This writing fundamentally changed the way I view it, and has me eager to go. This was the metaphor my heart brain needed. Thank you!
I need to write something about my own composting journey, Maybe I can encourage others on a practical level, because whatever I write won't compare in beauty to this piece. Food waste is something that has always grieved me, both my own and the world at large. It has been very mentally freeing and uplifting to know that the waste I create is nourishing our garden and creating new life.
You’re a heckuva writer, sir. Whatever you put together will be worth reading and articulate something that is a mixture of the transcendentals (truth, beauty, goodness). Write it!
I have another compost-inspired essay I’m sending out this week, a sort of follow up to this one even though I actually wrote it months ago. In retrospect I now realize it belongs after this essay.
Nathaniel - what an wonderful read you offered me to start my day! You weave ideas seamlessly and had me chuckle (love the Charlie Brown line), wonder, and nod along. We also have teenage chickens in our yard just now, and your compost confessional inspires for some changes in our set up. It is striking how spiritual insights and gardening seem a natural marriage (I often reflect on the parallels between dandelions and sin - if not uprooted they spread incessantly). Thanks again for your excellent post and looking forward to more!
You are so kind, Ruth: thank you!
The chickens love being in that compost, and my compost is the better for it. I just carry them over and pop them in, placing a bit of wood over the top to try and prevent them from getting out (although when they decide they’re done, they find their way out anyway). They spread it, mix it, add their own contribution to it, and it’s just a wonderful arrangement. Highly recommended.
I think “reading the weeds” will be the topic of another post at some point! There truly is a harvest of spiritual crops from a well-tended garden.
This is the *chef's kiss* perfect read before I head out to the backyard garden after my morning writing time. Thanks, Nate.
You are so welcome! I hope your time in the garden was enlivening.
“ The mysterious transformation of rotting stalks and burnt leaves and dying produce into nutritious soil has its analog in our souls. The wounds of inflicted sin become precious stones and pearls.”
Absolutely wonderful to read this morning. You are a gifted writer, sir. I love the idea that seems to be re-emerging that waste is a by-product of human sin rather than something allowed by God. Indeed, compost shows us that all of God’s creation has continual purpose.
Thanks for sharing your lesson with us. Thrilled to have you here on Substack and really looking forward to future essays.
Great work man! Was linked here from you "slick and slow as sin" poetry, I enjoyed it!
Ahh thanks so much, Cody! I appreciate you taking the time to read them both and comment.
Absolutely, I’ve really enjoyed your publication so far! My last two posts I’ve included some of my poetry, even though that’s not my typical wheelhouse. Would love your thoughts on it if you have time!
I haven’t had the chance to read the entirety of either piece but I read both poems: it’s like you’re from another era. They have a classical quality to their patterns that makes me feel that I’m reading something written in the 1800s. This is a good thing.
Thanks for pointing me to them!
Thank you sir!
Well now I need to go read Cody's poems! The slug poem brought me to this essay too and now I am contemplating the nature of my compost pile as I look at okra that needs picking.
Some pickled okra sounds great...
Let me know what you think! Giving you a free subscription so you can check them out, I have a few of them pay-walled because they are older than a year. Here are a few of the ones I have written:
"Beginning of Months": https://codyilardo.substack.com/p/beginning-of-months
"Jacob in Egypt": https://codyilardo.substack.com/p/jacob-in-egypt
"Ecce Homo" and "INRI": https://codyilardo.substack.com/p/the-trial-of-christ
"The Hammer of God": https://codyilardo.substack.com/p/the-hammer-of-god
Really gorgeous piece, Nathaniel, thank you! Too many lovely insights to recount.
The thinking on “waste” was very evocative for me. Our modern handling and thinking about waste in general is obviously broken, harmful, unsustainable - sinful. We need to work on correcting it. And so getting people to think about such in these terms is really important and I applaud this (as well as your efforts locally.)
Some thoughts on the “wounds change to pearls.” This is meant not from the perspective to minimize that sin hurts others, bur rather to soothe the suffering. It calls out that after enduring suffering/adversity, once wounds are fully healed and we truly can forgive, we necessarily grow from the experience. If nothing else, suffering caused by another’s sin teaches a compassionate person to avoid inflicting the same on another, to avoid the same sin inflicted upon them. It is one thing to be told sin is bad/wrong/harmful, it is another to experience the suffering caused by it. We can know how to better ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ knowing just how deep some pain gets. This is similar to the distinction of theory and practice, knowledge and wisdom.
Cheers and happy 4th 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
The thanks is mutual, Ed! I appreciate you taking time to read and leave your thoughts.
I have some thoughts rolling around in my head about public sewerage infrastructure in relation to my thinking on “waste” that I’ll work on developing at some point. As a plumber I’m torn because sewers are, like, my thing, right? And yet...
You’ve offered the caveats that I would want to get across. It’s less about making light of someone’s pain now and more about offering hope for what could be on the other side of healing. I think we often mean well but end up being more like Job’s friends than we’d like to admit, even with the best of intentions.
Happy 4th to you too, Ed! 🇺🇸 🦅
This is a wonderful reflection on God’s power and goodness that leaves me in tears. One comment: I do believe many times I am oriented towards the good and fail miserably for many reasons. But there are also those times I hate to admit when I KNOW an action or attitude is wrong and I still give into it. As humans we do things we know to be wrong just because we want to. Unfortunately and to our ultimate pain and sorrow. But this essay has given me so much to think about and incorporate into my view of what can be redeemed! Thank you so much!
You’re so kind, Karen. Thank you for reading and leaving a comment.
This is a great addition. Some(most?)times the human heart and our own ways are truly something we can’t know! But we can trust that God’s grace will abound over and above our sin, heal our wounds and set all things to rights.
Yes. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” And, like Paul, we must leave ultimate motivations to the God who judges all things rightly, while continuing in self examination and confession. God bless you brother!
As a Christian who loves and appreciates God’s creation more and more all the time, this essay was so great to come across. I really love the analogy you drew here. I’ll be thinking about this for days. Also, I’ve been itching to start growing food, composting and get chickens and you this post just encouraged me to get on it. Excellent work. I look forward to future posts.
Thanks so much, Daniel! As Ruth and I were discussing, gardens are such a natural classroom for spiritual lessons. They really go hand-in-hand.
Glad to light a fire and get you going on the garden and chicken life! I’m a beginner myself, but I’m happy to share the little I know.
Your reflections on waste really stuck out to me. Ive thought about similar things recently. Ways that God can use things we see as trash or useless that he turns around and uses for His glory. I wrote a little something about that this week actually. I figured I’d share this with you. Hope you enjoy it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/danielpetty/p/cardinal-rose?r=1hp78a&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
First of all, I’m also in Georgia 👀
Second of all, this is great and I enjoyed it very much. Our inability to hold things with a lose grip, making them available to God and others, is one of our greatest sins, I think. Hadden recently wrote a similar reflection to the both of us:
https://open.substack.com/pub/overthefield/p/sharing-our-food-with-the-multiplicity?r=29ahd9&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
No kidding.... I’m around outside of Columbus. How about you? And thanks for the reference, but I already read that this morning and really really enjoyed it! Your essay had me thinking back to Haden’s actually.
Oh dang, you're DOWN there. I'm up in Cobb County, about halfway between Atlanta and the foot of the mountains. Glad you got to read that piece! It's a good one.
Nate, this piece is magical and tremendously nourishing. I will read it again.
I’m happy I was able to (metaphorically) fill your belly!
As a former atheist, confession is something I still struggle with. A lot. This writing fundamentally changed the way I view it, and has me eager to go. This was the metaphor my heart brain needed. Thank you!
🥹 thanks be to God! I’m so happy to read this. Thank you for sharing your soul’s moment with me.
I need to write something about my own composting journey, Maybe I can encourage others on a practical level, because whatever I write won't compare in beauty to this piece. Food waste is something that has always grieved me, both my own and the world at large. It has been very mentally freeing and uplifting to know that the waste I create is nourishing our garden and creating new life.
You’re a heckuva writer, sir. Whatever you put together will be worth reading and articulate something that is a mixture of the transcendentals (truth, beauty, goodness). Write it!
I have another compost-inspired essay I’m sending out this week, a sort of follow up to this one even though I actually wrote it months ago. In retrospect I now realize it belongs after this essay.