A Place to Remember, Resist and Reimagine
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” – Psalm 126:5
I thought of writing about the latest insane step by this administration to launch a global trade war through tariffs. You surely heard that we are now placing tariffs on uninhabited islands. That might be sadly comical if we weren’t also placing tariffs on incredibly vulnerable places around the world already torn apart by conflict and poverty.1 Exactly how does this make America great?!? Can anyone explain this to me? But, there will be plenty of time to speak on tariffs that in the near future. We are in for very challenging months and years ahead. Instead, I’d like to invite us to meditate today on simple and sacred acts of loving defiance.
In the past, I have introduced you to our regenerative farm called the Common Good Farm.2 We collaborate with 10 acres of land, growing food and flowers that feed us and many other living beings throughout the year.
This weekend, when we are not protesting, we will be waist-deep in compost and cover crop, our hands in the soil, and our eyes on the coming harvest. We will grow forty-two varieties of heirloom vegetables here this year—each one with its own needs, rhythms, vulnerabilities, and gifts. Tomatoes and okra, beets and garlic, peas and sweet potatoes—each a story of patience, complexity, and hopeful labor.
It struck me, as it often does, that planting a garden is one of the most defiant acts of love a person can make in chaotic times. There is no rushing the growth. No algorithm can substitute for attentive care. You cannot bully a carrot to grow faster, or manipulate an asparagus into maturity. The garden laughs at our modern addiction to speed and control.
And yet, we keep planting.
We plant not because we are naïve to the chaos. We plant because we are wise to it. We plant because tending to life is our protest, our prayer, and our promise to the future. We plant because to grow anything well, you must build soil—layer by layer, year by year.
Isn’t that what we’re doing now, in our families, congregations and communities? Composting spiritual soil? Cultivating the kind of depth that can imagine and nourish a different kind of future?
Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, “What we practice at the scale of the garden is a way of being in the world.”3 In that way, the garden becomes not just a place of food—but a place of remembering, resisting, and reimagining. When we kneel in the dirt, we touch more than earth. We touch humility. We touch hope. We remember that we belong.
Our political, economic and civil systems may be crumbling, but our gardens are not. Our capacity for compassion is not. Our call to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God is not.
So, let’s keep planting. Let’s tend to each other like heirloom varieties—each with a story, each worthy of care. Let’s build communities like we compost soil—patiently, generously, and with an eye toward future harvests we may never fully see.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
What are you planting—figuratively or literally—that might nourish life in a time of upheaval?
How is your spirit asking to be tended right now?
In what ways can you be a gardener of the common good?
A Prayer for the Day
A Blessing for the Gardeners
O God of compost and cosmos,
Who makes beauty out of decay and hope out of humus,
Bless the hands that dig, water, weed, and wait.
Make us gardeners of the common good,
Turning over the hard ground of despair
And planting tiny seeds of courage and care.
When the world feels barren, remind us:
Roots are still reaching.
Life is still emerging.
And joy is still possible.
Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Garden with Intention
If you have access to soil—any soil—spend time tending it today. It could be a backyard, a balcony, a windowsill, or a patch of shared community ground. As you plant or water or pull weeds, do so as an act of quiet defiance against despair.
If you can’t get outside, find a way to “garden” your spirit. Write a note of encouragement. Call someone who needs tending. Read something that nourishes your roots. Or simply rest in the knowledge that you are part of creation’s sacred cycle—capable of renewal, worthy of love, and built for growth.
The harvest will come.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
May 19-22, 2025 - Preaching and Worship FREE Online Summit: From war to genocide to a global climate crisis to a nation that perpetuates racism, misogyny, transphobia, and more from the highest office in the land, how do we prepare a sermon, a liturgy, a song, a prayer? Learn from some of our best preachers. REGISTER HERE.
June 4, 2025, 12pm ET - Jeff Chu has written a new book on a topic close to my heart: Soil! The title is “Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand.” I am so pleased to be interviewing him. Together, we’ll explore what it means to cultivate “good soil” in our lives, our communities, and our spiritual practices. I hope you will register. Your registration includes a copy of his new book.
July 20-25, 2025 - The Art of Wilding: A 5-Day Expedition in Wyoming for Women Leaders. Click here to learn more. Only one spot left!
August 11, 2025, 2pm ET - Dr. Andrew Root and I will be hosting a 6 part series on Spirituality in the Secular Age based on his research. The dates are August 11, 18, September 8, 15, and October 6, 13. Mark your calendars! More on this soon.
September 4, 4:30pm ET - I will be collaborating with the Anderson Forum for Progressive Theology to host a conversation with Thomas Jay Oord on Open and Relational theology. It’s a FREE event. Register here.
October 15-18, 2025 - Converging 2025: Sing Truth Conference (all musicians invited!) at Northwest Christian Church in Columbus, OH. Register here!
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Our farm is named after the teachings of Thomas Aquinas who was the first to use the phrase “Common Good” in reflection to law and civil society. Here is a wonderful meditation by Dr. Matthew Fox that is explores this in depth: https://dailymeditationswithmatthewfox.org/2020/06/18/aquinas-on-resisting-tyrants-and-enemies-of-the-common-good/
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass, is a sacred text for our time. If you haven’t read it, you must!
https://bookshop.org/p/books/braiding-sweetgrass-robin-wall-kimmerer/16712606?ean=9781571313560&next=t
If I knew the end were tomorrow? I would plant a tree.
Attributed to Martin Luther, and others
Gratitude for the encouragement and reminder that resistance is present even in tending to a garden. Food security, sharing your harvest, nurturing a patch for mother earth, and tending your soul, spirit along with the soil is such good medicine!💕