We all hope for second chances. One remarkable second chance is in Boone County, West Virginia, where an agricultural cooperative is reclaiming land destroyed by strip mining. They’re doing it with lavender.
Appalachian Botanical has leased land from a company that abandoned its property and is growing miles and miles of lavender and manufacturing all kinds of products that are now being shipped all over the United States. The company gives a second chance not just to the land but to its people with programs for persons recovering from opioid addiction and ex-offenders. You can find Appalachian Botanical on the web.
Lavender is among the world’s oldest documented plants. Ancient hieroglyphic texts refer to its fragrance. It is mentioned in scripture as spikenard, from the Greek word for lavender. Our English word lavender derives from the Latin lavandula. Smell the fragrance of lavender growing in a garden. Touch it and bring your finger up to your nose and you’ll understand why the Swallowtail weaves in and out of each tiny blossom on the stem.
Prayer for the Day
Finding hope where the land has been ruptured is not easy, O Lord,
For your creation groans in pain for the sins of the past;
Creating new life on mountains laid bare requires hard work,
And we pray for the fortitude and perseverance required to do so.
Heal us and grant us the vision to see the possibilities of new life
Especially where old life has been destroyed.
In the name of him who walked among the lilies,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
But we have only begun to love the earth,
We have only begun to imagine the fullness of life.
Denise Levertov, American poet (1923-1997)
They sing of a life, free and simple, with time for one another, and for people’s needs, based on the dignity of the human person, at one with nature’s beauty.
Catholic Bishops of Appalachia
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with all the chicest fruits, Henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all chief spices, a garden fountain, a well of living water and flowing streams from Lebanon.
Song of Solomon 4: 13-15