A couple of nights ago I had this interesting dream of a couple of hanging pots with beautiful clover (or Shamrocks) trailing over the edge of each pot. The stems of each clover were connected to each other, with several of them being being next to each other. This created a lovely cascading effect of clover drifting with the breezes.
Then I wondered about my ancestry in terms of Ireland. And I wondered about the connection of those of us who love all-things-Irish…then I wondered even more about the symbol of the Clover. Not the Shamrock for Good Luck. But the Clover. The symbol for the Trinity. God the 3-in-1. God the Father/Mother, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Just as the clover has 3 leaves but is attached to the 1 stem.
There is a difference: The Shamrock and the Clover. 4 leaves versus 3. Good Luck versus the mystery of the Trinity. Yet strange that it may seem, they both “fit” the honoring of St. Patrick’s Day and all things Irish. I think that that is why we enjoy this holiday so much! It is a blend of somewhere between the hope of Winning the Lottery and the Mystical. A mixture of hope, belief, faith, curiosity, reality, and wonder.
With regard to creating our own “pots o’ green” I think that we need to look closely to determine if what we “plant” or teach, stands for “Good Luck” or if that which we (Christians) share is all the ways that we understand God. It could be that we just “leave it up to Chance” whether our faith is “caught” or should be taught. But the bottom line is that we want our “plants” to be healthy (in this case, green!) We need simply remember that the “harvest” is up to the Master Gardener. All we have to do is love to plant!
©️ 2019, Janine C. Hagan