This weekend was to be my big clean up weekend.  I had visions of a major backyard clean up where my containers were cleared out, leaves neatly raked into piles and all the junk strewn about would be tamed and organized.  I am big on organization.  Big on it.  Really big on it.  My husband would say way too big on it.  But alas, monster winds, a tornado warning and a torrential downpour forced me to stay indoors and leave my spring clean up to another weekend.  Oh, so very sad.  Here we are in mid-April and I am where I was last year in mid-February.  Last year we had a fairly early spring and even though there were a few frosty nights, by the end of March I had an organized garden and simply covered my tender seedlings or brought them inside for the periodic night chills.  Well, what can one do.  Between the weather (which is out of my control) and the crushing workload full of what seems like a 24/7 work schedule (which is also out of my control), I am beginning to wonder if this is the new “normal.”  I suspect that it is.  On the weather front, we are hearing about the increasingly unpredictable patterns.  On the political front (that directly affects my workload and schedule), we are gearing up for a very unpredictable storm prompted by forces of ideology and partisanship.  A garden understands the reality of dependence.  So many forces rely on each other for survival.   The seed needs the soil and water to sprout.  Then the sun to grow.  The wind is needed to spread seeds.  It is a system.   For humans, I find the concept of interdependence to be particularly relevant in today’s turbulent and often divisive political climate.  It is through this concept that I believe we can survive the current political storm as a country and people.  I am particularly moved by the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.,

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.  (Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963)

….for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.   (Martin Luther King, Jr., I have a dream, 1963)