May 31, 2026
“Sharing the Harvest” by LKV Walsh
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This week, we began harvesting the things we planted a couple of months ago, and thank goodness there are only so many radishes we need. Before we got to them, the slugs took a bit here and there, and we are pretty sure a rabbit took a few bites as well. I would like to say I planted with a plan for sharing, but I can’t take credit for it. Instead, I found myself tempted to be annoyed that the radishes came into the house less-than-picture-perfect and needing a bit more prep as a result of the unknown eaters. Nevertheless, we have plenty even if I sometimes struggle to remember that that is the point.
Years ago, I happened upon a television show that focused on culinary masters in various countries and cultures. One of the episodes introduced a Korean Buddhist nun, Venerable Jeong Kwan, who was famous for her philosophies of food and cooking. One of the most striking aspects of the episode was her perspective on planting for the kitchen. She pointed out that instead of trying to keep “pests” from taking part of the crop, she planted in a way that there was plenty for the creatures around the garden and plenty for the kitchen as well. Of course, sometimes nature took all of something, but then Kwan just reframed the thing lost as something she did not need for now. This way of “being with” creation not only eliminated a sense of competition, but also meant that she was able to open her heart from planting to eating. The message has stayed on the periphery of my thinking all these years, and I returned to it with my fistful of radishes looking like puzzle pieces this week.
Of course, it is not only Buddhist thought that asks us to remember there is enough. In the Christian tradition, this sacred idea that there is enough with each other is embodied in the Trinity. Instead of three meaning constant vying for a pairing off that implies scarcity and justifies competition, the idea of God as relationship in triplicate teaches us that love leads us beyond scarcity or competition. We can love and offer up and even do without, and we can still receive and be loved and have enough. We can plant in a way that there is enough for all. And we can call what we have enough because we have it with others.
Granted, this thinking isn’t even easy with radishes, so it certainly is not easy with in-laws and friends let alone countries and economies. And if we are truly without in ways that mean we cannot survive, the answer is not to deem that acceptable. But when we are mostly okay, sharing with others and calling that enough is the thing we can do right now and right here that will change how the world works even as it changes how life feels. It is the thing we can do that makes us powerful beyond measure even as we struggle to feel we have any control at all. We can plant radishes*, and we can call the harvest of them plenty no matter how much of it we are sharing with those who also inhabit the patch of ground. We can refuse to be in competition and reclaim what it means to have enough…with each other.
*I love that the word “radish” shares the same etymology as the word radical – radix meaning rooted!
To Walk with Saints and Scholars 
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