After the tumultuous spring, when summer came knocking, I launched my pilgrimage to local garden centers. It was a multi-day, multi-trip quest to find the perfect plants to grace my yard. What I unexpectedly carried away from the pilgrimage was something more profound, more beautiful, than the pots of lavender and salvia I took home.
Every garden center I visited was alive with brilliant blooms. But no experience was as surprising or uplifting as the one I walked into an early morning stop at Walmart’s garden center. There, in the shadow of the big box store, a young worker illustrated what it means to be truly connected to nature.
Unaware of my presence, she strolled the aisles of marigolds and impatiens serenading the plants as she watered each one. The caretaker of the greens sang with the tenderness of a mother crooning lullabies to her child.
This woman’s connection to the living, growing flora was intimate. Through her songs, she courted a reciprocal exchange of energies with her charges. Most of us welcome summer’s opportunities to recreate in nature. We seek to visit the natural world to recharge ourselves and play in its bounty. But my Walmart worker in her blue megastore apron went beyond self-interest to cultivate a relationship with the pots of living members of Earth.
Twice more I visited the center. Each time I found the young woman bathing her plants in song. It was clear, she understands what the Catholic mystic St. Francis of Assisi showed us eight centuries ago.
The teachings of St. Francis shaped the contemporary environmental movement. He referred to Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Fire and Sister Wind. In his reverence for the elements, animals and all creation, he showed us we are one family. While many Indigenous peoples share a similar philosophy, St. Francis exemplified to the modern world our belonging and responsibility to steward creation — to celebrate diversity as the foundation of life.
Establishing an intimate relationship to the diverse essence of the natural world can happen almost anywhere, as the singing Walmart worker shows. And as we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary in this environment of division, St. Francis’ beliefs shine light on the possibility of a better path to our future. We belong to each other, the patron saint of ecology tells us — everything and every person belongs. We are one family meant to value, care for, enjoy and appreciate diversity as the gift of life. It’s something worth singing about.