A Quiet Place: The Story Of My Dad’s Allotment

My Dad went to work five days a week, helped in organising and officiating services for another of those days and would also help out with the Sunday evening services. As well as that he was married and had responsibilities for one daughter and two sons.

At the time growing up I certainly didn’t appreciate all of that. In fact it’s fair to say I didn’t appreciate much of that at all. As far as I was concerned, he was my dad, he did what he felt he had to do to keep things ticking along. Mum was a much more vocal force in the home, so it was easy to reach the conclusion that she pulled the majority of the weight in the home, while my Dad as the silent partner just stepped in for disciplinary purposes.

Now 15 years after leaving home, married with three children of my home and the responsibility of working five days a week to support the material aspects of family life, I appreciate a lot more how indeed my Dad was not as silent or passive as I thought. Indeed a lot of pressure and demands were placed on him from work, from church and from home. Never mind his own pressures that swirled in his mind, it was a miracle he was able to take all this and still be consistent and diligent in all his concerns. He truly was Mr. Reliable and many, including his wife and children, almost took it for granted that when the time came, he would do whatever needed to be done.

It becomes all the more remarkable that my dad was able to achieve this and still have a song on his heart and a word of encouragement and consolation in time of need. Now as I encounter my own challenges with vocation, family and other aspects of life I notice a saving grace of my Dad’s, which almost certainly was pivotal in my dad maintaining a connection with god and a life balance.

Whenever time and weather permitted on a Sunday, my Dad made his way to his allomtment. For the uninitiated some local councils have a scheme where they rent out a piece of land to interested parties. On this land, the tenant would tend to nurture and grow fruit or vegetables for his enjoyment and possibly to share with others.

My Dad grew his vegetables on the allotment judging the right time and soil to determine which vegetable he would grow. The allotment offered my Dad a lot of quiet time.  We as children hardly ever visited him on the allotment.  Mum never disturbed him while he was there either.  It was his time away to nurture and contemplate, relax and reflect, plan and proceed and invest himself richly refreshing as well as rewarding.

I’m almost certain it was a place for him to get away and recharge his batteries in engaging in something that brought him closer to seeing what God wanted from him. It was the closest he got to his haven of rest before he returned to Jamaica over a decade ago.

Not everyone has an allotment.  I for one have no inclination towards growing things in the earth and tending to an allotment.  Some people don’t have their private area secluded from interruption from the world.  The deal with the allotment, however, is about a state of mind and a priority of privacy with God.  That is not so much a desire for space as it is a priority of time.

For an allotment it could easily have been some minutes on a toilet.  Maybe a few minutes more in bed.  Perhaps it’s the walk or drive to work.  However it manifests itself, just as Jesus exemplified, there is a time to walk away from the crowd of responsibilities and the haggling demands of every day life, to go to a secret place in our mind to commune with God.

Having this as an important part of the rhythm of life informs everything else and provides the environment to enable greater capacity to serve in areas of those demands and responsibilities.  It’s a wonderful discipline to practice in ensuring Jesus remains the heartbeat that keeps the whole being flowing and not those demands and responsibilities even as they are granted by Him.

As the world with its gadgets and devices looks to cram things in even if it’s described as ‘simplifying’ things, it makes it all the more necessary to cut off completely to turn on totally to that sweet communion that Jesus Himself evidently savour in His time on earth.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd