I originally thought of Garden Theology back in my Evangelical days, thinking about returning to the Garden of Eden and creation's relationship with God. I realize now literally, gardening and theology are what have built me. The two foundational aspects of me. The two components of my being that light me up more than anything. 

My mother and grandmothers were all gardeners or growers throughout my childhood. My earliest memories are pouring out of the car after a long drive to my Mamaw and Papaw's and running straight to their broccoli patch, trying to eat the crunchy stalks before my Mamaw could inspect for any stowaway bugs. My siblings and I played for hours in her garden, which took up most of the front yard, incorporating rocks which my Papaw collected, a beautiful flowering crabapple tree we always were trying to eat or feed to various animals, and beautiful flowers. I remember my mom and Mamaw sitting for hours planning out the landscaping when we were building our house that we stayed in for 19 years, and I went on to buy. 

I remember my parents and grandparents working out in the garden most weekends. Wheelbarrows and transplanting and a combination of growing food and growing plants. I never took much interest in helping, except when we were commissioned to help pull weeds. I always knew who to ask when I had a plant question and I asked them often. 

I have equally as many memories of theology. Growing up in a tiny church of 30ish afforded me opportunities to experience a beautiful type of community I have not seen since. An intergenerational group, mostly of family members, sharing meals, washing feet, singing and debating (arguing) over interpretations of God, people and life. I heard different theologies as we moved on to bigger churches, each more damaging than the last. I sought to break open the rigid box of a God that I had been given. I tried to stay within the existing system of Christianity I knew until 2020, when the world was given permission to take some space. 

It all fell apart for me. The idea that the Creator of the Earth asks us to abide by these exclusive, restrictive rules, disconnected from ourselves and the Earth in a lot of cases, who sends people who happen to claim belief in the system even if their actions don't line up at all - to heaven and others to hell?

I know I sound cynical. I am on a lot of days. But on other days I have hope. Hope for humanity that we'll wake up out of our divisive, digital induced stupor and enter into interconnectedness again. It will require a return. Hence Garden Theology. 

I've been so stuck inside my head for so long. Debating how to share everything I've been processing over the past few years as I've let myself out of the box of restrictive belief. I see so much good outside of it. Not to say everything in the system is bad, but so limiting. I've been focusing on expanding. There is so much freedom. True freedom. Not fear. Not exclusion or privilege. Just discovery.