Compost Bin Minuet

Last week, we performed the annual compost bin minuet. For months, we dump raw food and plant waste into the plastic stacking bin, and when it finally reaches the top, we turn to the neighbouring heap mouldering beneath black plastic sheeting. As we pull back the plastic, we find that over the months, what was decaying and smelly has transformed into a black tilth-like material which, when dug into the vegetable patch, enriches the soil. When that mound is gone, we shift the plastic layers very carefully off of the undigested plant waste. We cover that hill with the black plastic and are back in business, ready to make a new mound of organic waste.

What was no good for our digestion – egg shells, potato peels, etc – breaks down into great nutrients for the garden.

Some things in life are no good for our digestion. Illness, abuse, poverty, loss. But, placed into a divine compost bin where God can work on them, they can transform into a rich material the Holy Spirit can use to enrich the soul.

And when the time is right, God can dig that rich tilth, formed through our experiences and suffering, into the lives of others.

Where there is darkness, God speaks light into being. Transformative light. Powerful and full of life and hope and joy.