Finding God in the Garden Backyard Reflections on Life, Love, and Compost

by Brickner, Balfour

• ISBN13: 9780316738668
• ISBN10: 0316738662
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Back Bay Books

Summary

What do natural beauty and a garden compost pile have to teach us about the meaning of faith? What can the demise of a favorite rhododendron reveal about the limits of prayer? Everything in the garden becomes grist for Balfour Brickner's search for a spirituality that can withstand the tests of both modern cynicism and contemporary science. What, in due course, he discovers: it is observation, doubt, wonderment, and questioning-not blind acceptance of a given doctrine-that lead to faith. For Rabbi Brickner, the resonance between biblical teachings and botanical life provides daily revelations.

Author Biography

Balfour Brickner, a well-known rabbi long associated with the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, is a dedicated political and social activist. He tends his garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	3	(7)
Eden: The First Garden	10	(22)
Coneflowers and Sex	32	(18)
When the Rhododendron Died	50	(18)
On Compost, Death, and Immortality	68	(26)
Garden-Variety Miracles	94	(20)
Miracle-Gro and the Milky Way	114	(23)
A Life Lesson from the Peonies	137	(15)
The Garden Bench	152	(15)
Poison Ivy, Healing, and Spirituality	167	(20)
Letting Go	187	(23)
Epilogue	210