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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Green Onions and Quiet Growth

July 19, 2016 by HappyGoStuckey 14 Comments

I am strangely attached to the green onions in the orange pots out back.

They first came from my Grandfather’s sandy lake-front yard. After he passed away, they made their way to me through my Dad’s own hot garden. He offered them to me with gas money and a grin as I left their house one day. A five gallon bucket of pungent spring bumped along in the back seat on the drive home. For five hours of interstate I just hoped I could keep them alive.

We planted, watered, and waited. For weeks they sprung up and we cut them. They graced scrambled eggs and Green Jacket Salad and everything but ice cream.
Then one day I bounced outside with my herb shears and gasped.
Dead as a doornail, my onions were brown, withered, and mostly gone. I had killed them. I killed my sweet grandfather’s scallions. Shoulders slumped, I turned to go inside– resigned to buy them like a commoner in the produce section from then on.

After several weeks of avoiding all things garden with my Dad, he said — “Hey, I forgot to tell you. The onions might die. But don’t worry, they always come back. Even when it looks like they’re long gone— just wait. They’ll be back.”

He was right. A couple months later, they sprang up again. Tiny tender sprigs of green from black soil.

That was more than a year ago and I’ve watched those same green onions die a sudden death multiple times. Each time, I wait for them and it seems they’re finally gone. But they always come back. Small and green and hopeful. No amount of time spent forgotten keeps them from coming back.
It’s what they do, they live.

And every time they shoot up overnight, I remember.
I remember that growth often happens in the forgotten darkness. In the quiet places where no one sees. It may happen slowly and an inch at a time, but it happens just the same.
Because slow can often look like death to us. A failure to produce much can look like a failure to thrive at all. Slow progress is easy to ignore, and when we ignore it— we despise the quiet growth.

This is the growth we have as the created ones, created by One much bigger than ourselves. Our very need to grow and make things and learn and get better reflects our need for Him.

But we often disdain the slow for the immediate. We snarl at the tiny group for thousands of ears. We sigh at the “we didn’t do today” list and completely disregard the progress that was made– even if that progress was melting popsicles and belly laughs with our people.

May we be content– you and I, with where we are today. May we be happy with what we have to offer, with the very best we can do– And remember that underground, in the dark? That’s where the roots are. That’s where the real growth happens. 

What I Learned and Loved in June
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Comments

  1. Deanna Smith says

    July 22, 2016 at 10:07 pm

    Waiting for that growth to happen underground can be agonizing. Thank you for the lovely reminder that it’s worth the wait.

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      July 23, 2016 at 8:54 am

      Hi Deanna. I completely agree. This was one of those posts I wrote from my own processing, as I’m sure you know well with your own words! Thank you for stopping by and saying hello. Always happy to hear from you!

      Reply
  2. emily p freeman says

    July 23, 2016 at 6:42 am

    Beautiful.

    “It’s what they do, they live.” That line slayed me. Slew me. Whatever the past tense of slay is.

    Well done, Cynthia. Thank you for sharing this.

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      July 23, 2016 at 8:51 am

      Thank you so much, Emily.
      I’m so honored to be mentioned among the other writers on your weekend post!
      And as for slay/ slew– I have no idea. They both sound right.
      Glad to see you here today.

      Reply
    • Karen Fleming says

      July 30, 2016 at 7:03 am

      Oh Emily, you are so funny and sweet.

      Reply
  3. Wendy says

    July 23, 2016 at 10:31 am

    So encouraging, Cynthia! I’m feeling a bit “in the dark” lately, and wondering when the growth is going to happen. I love the analogy and connection you’ve made here.

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      August 5, 2016 at 12:10 pm

      Thank you for stopping by Wendy. Glad it was an encouragement to you. I definitely share in your feeling of being in the dark!

      Reply
  4. Kate Laymon says

    July 24, 2016 at 2:57 pm

    A great reminder. I am always judging by what the eyes can see but there is so much going on beneath the surface. Thank you for sharing your reflections.

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      August 5, 2016 at 12:08 pm

      Hi Kate! Thank you for stopping by. Thank goodness there’s more going on underneath, right? Especially in the seasons of nothing to show for it. I have felt like that all summer! 🙂

      Reply
  5. Mindy says

    July 28, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    Such a lovely post. I am forever changed by the lessons God teaches me through gardening and your insights touch my heart.

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      August 5, 2016 at 12:05 pm

      Thank you Mindy. Its amazing, gardening isn’t it? Some of the lessons I feel Im learning are so obvious and even seem a little cliche at times, but I’ve still never learned them in quite that way. Glad to see you here!

      Reply

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  1. For Your Weekend - emily p. freeman - says:
    July 23, 2016 at 7:10 am

    […] Green Onions and Quiet Growth by Cynthia Stuckey […]

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  2. A Tradition Unlike Any Other: Green Jacket Salad says:
    March 31, 2017 at 11:32 am

    […] 3.5.3226 You may also be interested in: Green Onions and Quiet Growth […]

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  3. A thought for today – The Wandering Waif says:
    May 23, 2018 at 9:19 pm

    […] is the quote from the blog post, ripped out of […]

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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happygostuckey

I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the h I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the headline, “Ditch Gratitude!” 

This is my “No thanks,” face.
My grateful face.
My you-can’t-make-me-face.
Because no matter how long the list of things we still don’t know, I know I need gratitude like water.

Questions remain. Uncertainties abound. Reasons for concern greet us with each January dawn.

Hope remains and so do questions. The two have never been enemies, but cozy next door neighbors.
I’ll keep my gratitude, thank you.
Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will co Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will continue to sigh into in ‘21.
Baking sourdough, watching it bubble and rise and fill our BlueHouse with the scent of a good, long, posture of patience— I absolutely need a second serving of this.
While we wait, and whatever it is that we wait for— may the space between be made sweeter by the knowledge that we never wait alone.
You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapp You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapped this photo was somewhat of a regular day.

What looks like a winter beach vacation was actually the tail-end of a masked lunch stop in the middle of a pandemic road trip.

This sparkling moment of sun-splashed fun was sandwiched between brutal conversations about regular life, especially the hard parts.

And this is how it is. 
These bits of life that we never see coming, they are enveloped between all that makes us tired, weary, sighing pilgrims in a world that was never really meant to be hospitable in the first place.

This photo reminds me to look again at our year, our season, our circumstances.

To look a second and third time.
To keep looking as long as it takes to see that the joy of our right now isn’t gone, it just might be hiding in the shadow of all that’s hard.

Brokenness is never vague. And we don’t have to search very long to see it both within ourselves and around us.
Sometimes the weight of that fact is crushing.
And then, sometimes it reminds us even more clearly of the light shining in darkness.

Joy is an act of defiance against despair and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling rather defiant at the moment.✨✨✨✨

@hopewriters #hopewriterlife 
#feastingandforaging #hopelenses #getaftergrateful
Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially if what we’re called to be about is the same as yesterday and last month. 
It’s difficult to meet each day with the same fervor and joy for what we are called to do, especially when at present, the progress seems small and immeasurable. 
But even then, perhaps especially so — our faithfulness matters.

When we cannot yet see the other side, the light at the end of this particularly long tunnel, we begin again.

Not because we will always wake with fresh energies and bright, sparkling hope for what comes next, friend. But because the God of Endurance (Romans 15:5) dwells within us.

“It is the grace of endurance granted to you by the God of endurance that provides you with everything you need to continue to be what he calls you to be and do what he calls you to do between this moment and the moment when you cross over to the other side. When difficulty exposes the weakness of your resolve and the limits of your strength, you do not have to panic, because He will endure even in this moments when you don’t feel able to do so yourself.” — Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

#hopewriterlife
Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for paper towels... especially if the store is in convenient proximity to a quick date for croissants and dirty chai for two. Love my forever coffee companion even more at the start of this new year. Wherever he’s going, I’m riding shotgun.
We have learned... The inestimable value of a goo We have learned...

The inestimable value of a good camp chair, for they have been used for everything from soccer benches and coffee dates to theatre seats and church pews.

What our neighborhood streets can offer in the way of an outing—from the colors of spring to the sparkle of Christmas.

To hold plans with the loosest hands possible.

To rejoice in things found. Time. Margin. ...and enough toilet paper to share with a neighbor.

To give grace and accept it for ourselves.

The hilarious joy of a group text complete with “have you seen this meme yet?” 

To pivot. And then pivot again.

To find more joy in candlelight closer to home, instead of the bright lights of traveled cities.

To perfect our pizza dough recipe and truly learn to prefer it over dinner out.

To work with yeast and flour again and again— until the message of waiting for something really good dusted our apron fronts and kitchen floors.

And in our house, we learned how to be unexpectedly unemployed. We learned how to honor that new found space with needed grief and desired hope. How to be grateful for true friends who prayed with us, held questions with us, and hoped with us. We were reminded of our true identity and that it will never rest in a job. 

In a year in which we’ve all lost quite a lot, you and I have been given so much as well. Some of what we’ve lost we have learned to be without. Some, we won’t go looking for again.

In 525,600 minutes and in all the things, found and lost and found again— there is far and away more to be grateful for.

And we choose joy.

✨Happy New Year, dear friends!✨
Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Though the one in our rear view window is one we wouldn’t choose to repeat, still it was one full of God’s nearness.

One day I’ll write it all down.
But for now I’ll just say,
we were not alone. 🕯
“Once in our world, a Stable had something in it “Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”
C.S.Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

Joy to the World, friends.
Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 desser Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 dessert ever. Made from a wonky gingerbread cake that did not cooperate.
We shall not go quietly into 2021.
We will fight back with beauty and joy and candles... and fresh whipped cream made by an eleven year old with sparkly green eyes. 🎄❤️✨
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