Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

READ Isaiah 58:9b-12

FROM THE ARTIST | Lauren Wright Pittman

After repeated readings of this text, I began to see a garden bursting out of a spring. I imagined the flowers working together to build a beautiful arched structure in a parched place. For me, the structure came to represent the rebuilt ruins in the text which create a safe space for restored communities to thrive. I began creating the piece by finding both drought-resistant and water-emergent plants to create the structure. The water-emergent plants lay the foundation in the midst of the gurgling spring: lotuses, birdbill dayflowers, blue flags, and buttonbush flowers. Building from there, drought-resistant plants craft the strong bones and arches of this rebuilt ruin; from the base to the top of the shelter are: catmint, coneflower, geraniums, dianthus, butterfly weeds, agapanthus, and verbena. Metaphorically speaking, the health of the garden depends on the hard work of gardeners culling weeds (which in the Isaiah passage could be represented by removing the yoke, the pointing of fingers, and the speaking of evil). The garden also depends on adding necessary nutrients to the soil (offering food to the hungry and satisfying the needs of the afflicted). This is the good that is ours to do.