By Flavio Sloat
In the gospel of Matthew, we are told that “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field."
The discoverer of the treasure does not own the field nor, consequently, the treasure. On first reading, it seems he wants to own the field so that he can claim the treasure. To those around him who are ignorant of the treasure, his actions surely seemed strange--selling everything and spending his life savings on a field!
I submit that deeper down this story is about the idea of unexpectedly finding something of enormous value while at the same time the value of the find is not understood by most of the world.
My natural segue here would be to say the Parkway Tedder Community Garden & Food Forest is exactly this treasure and has always been apparent to those in the "know" including me...but it's not quite that easy.
I first visited the church property that now houses the garden 4 years ago. I didn't see a "field with secret treasure". I arrived, looked around for about 10 seconds, saw only an unused flat spot with weeds and overgrown trees, and went inside for the meeting I was there for.
A year later I visited again and saw the field as a construction site, gravel mounds, noisy earthmovers, big cement pipes--a local construction company was staging the neighborhood paving and betterment project from the rented field. The field had gone from unused to blighted, certainly a field with little value! My eyes were still on the church building and its potential to serve the community from programs on the inside.
Fast forward to today, there is plenty of value inside the church building, but today we are outside to celebrate the value of the treasure here in what was once a weedy field.
The process has been bumpy and unpredictable, it started with 5 garden plots and a celebration. Since then we have had a steady stream of twists and turns and marvelous characters unexpectedly jumping in with impossible dreams that somehow started growing. It leapfrogged with folks like Donna the master gardener, Miguel the permaculture expert, and Ginger the neighborhood watch coordinator.
Back to our story of treasure in the field. In the story of the treasure in the field it is natural to think that the 'value' of the treasure was probably at its 'finest' when used outside the field, buying a chariot or perhaps a house in a nice part of the city, but here the hidden treasure has appeared and is growing in the field through the dreams, work, and dripping sweat of the many different people working in the field ITSELF. And it continues, and even though the millions of drivers out on Interstate 95 (right next to the property) have no idea what is happening "the field" is steadily turning into a place of health (both physical and spiritual), community, education, restoration and hope.
Like the parable, it may seem crazy to those who don't see the hidden potential of this "fruitful field" in a poor neighborhood with a bad reputation.
But for us this is a a place where, just like today, sunshine and rainbows emerge right after torrential rains.
So, here in the middle of flowering trees, growing vegetables, and returning wildlife we invite you to be part of expanding and uncovering this hidden treasure. Your involvement can make a difference by speeding up the story of how a lowly, weed covered field becomes a place of rich treasure that enriches in ways both unexpected and grand.
*Sloat is a volunteer at the Parkway Tedder Community Garden--an A Rocha affiliated project in Deerfield Beach, FL. For more information on the Garden, see http://parkwayteddergarden.com
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