Do you know where your garden vegetables grow? Local farmer? Commercial grower? Your own backyard? Does it matter to you if they come from uniformed tidy rows?

What if your vegetable came from an unexpected place? Would you eat something from the compost bin? How would you feel if you had an unruly squash plant laden snaking out of your compost bin? Would you eat the squash?

We have a compost bin in the back corner of our yard. In it, we add vegetable waste, egg shells, coffee grounds, grass and leaves. In time, it turns into beautiful soil. Earlier in the summer we noticed the telltale signs of a vine and squash-type leaves curling out from under the bin. Rather than pulling them, I thought we should wait to see what, if anything, would develop. I was thinking that it might be a stray pumpkin courtesy of the squirrels who love to devour our porch pumpkins and spread the “love” all over the yard.

So I was thrilled to see squash blossoms and then to see the development of delicata squash. I guess we must’ve put the “innards” of a squash from last year into the bin. Who knew that it would take hold and grow? The compost bin is in the back corner of our yard, behind our shed. We do not water that area nor do we tend to it. Yet even with those conditions, it just grew.

Discovered on a dog walk. These impatients decided to bloom where they landed- in the middle of a brick stoop.

Bloom where you are planted. A cutesy saying, but is true or a bunch of bunk? Can one bloom when planted anywhere? When one is in an unfavorable space? First of all, can one even grow, forget about producing any blossoms or fruit? Will that fruit be edible?

I know many people who feel that they are stuck. Physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They are in a place where there is no room for growth or even any type of development. They seem to be dumped in a heap of unwanted, rotting things. For them, it seems as if there isn’t any positive goodness in their lives. The way they arrived in this place may have not been through anything that they did or didn’t do- it just happened through circumstances or choices of other people.

But in the words of W.H. Auden- goodness exists. For in the heap of discarded things, growth and opportunity abound. Sometimes it is just that we sometimes do not see it- the microbes and worms that eat, regurgitate and create good, healthy, regenerative material. An environment that is then conducive to growth. And once grown and developed, the outcome produces life. It just might occur where we don’t expect it- in the middle of a compost heap.

What about you? Do you feel stuck in the compost heap of life? How did you get there? Any idea? If you let it, can the situation shape and mold you into a healthy beginning. Can it produce strength and resilience? Can that be used to cultivate a change and a movement forward? Can that movement forward produce growth?

Even if one is in a compost heap, opportunity abounds. We sometimes just have to wait and see.