“The ground beneath us is very hard.”  That was our big learning as we began our gardening work today at East End Cooperative Ministries (EECM) in East Liberty.

The ground beneath us is very hard because of the dry heat we have been experiencing for too many days to count.

The ground beneath us is very hard because of the harsh realities of racism and privilege that impact all of us.

The ground beneath us is very hard because of the challenges COVID19 present to us when we try to do the most normal of activities.

Yes, the ground is hard, but we can be plowed.

Just as we used our resolve and gardening tools this morning, so must we use our resolve and human resources inspired by ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ to break through the hard ground of our society.  And if we try hard enough, the ground will yield its vegetables for all of us just as the gardens we prepared today will provide food for those who visit the EECM Community Kitchen, the EECM Food Pantry and for those who walk be the garden and are invited to take what they want from the corners of the raised beds just as it has been done for thousands of years going back to the days of our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, our neighbors and friends who lived in the days of the Torah.

Pick up your tools of compassion, empathy, sympathy, morality, equality, equal access to opportunity, understanding, curiosity, wonder, love… and get to work plowing.