Fertilizing Time

It is amazing what a dose of Miracle-Gro can do to an anemic plant or a struggling seedling. In just days they are transformed into sturdy, healthy, and in some cases, flowering plants. Yes, there are chemicals that spur the growth, and it takes time to dutifully fertilize them, but it works.
The Gospel story of Martha and Mary presents the enigma of choice between action and contemplation, it would seem. Martha is busy preparing dinner, and Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, wrapped in contemplative listening. Is there a dichotomy here? There could be, but while applying Miracle-Gro to a garden full of dwarfed plants this morning, it occured to me that Miracle-Gro is the stance that Mary took, and if applied to the work that Martha was doing, how much more productive would it be, and how less prone to anger and frustration? What we need to do is learn to "fertilize our time", of which we are always complaining that there is never enough of it, especially for prayer, or that it passes ever too fast. How ideal it would be to blend the two, listening attentively to Jesus as he speaks to us while we do the necessary work of each day, and through it! Yes, fertilizing flowers, as mundane as it may seem, can be a fuitful time for the soul as well as for the plants. It again comes down to St. Marcellin's favorite act of piety: living and working in the Presence of God. It is the Miracle-Gro for our souls.
Bro. Rene