It takes 500 years....

It takes 500 years for nature to form only an inch of soil. With that math, 8 inches of topsoil took 4000 years of plant and animal life cycles returning the nutrients they pulled from the earth back to soil in the form of organic matter. Darke county soils are especially good because the region was at one time a swamp that was drained by man. Being a steward means caring for the soil in a way to allow it to be here for generations to come.

Soil has a smell, especially when turned or tilled. Its a smell that takes me back to childhood, when I dug potatoes with my grandpa. Every shovel was a surprise of potatoes, worms, and pillbugs. And it means the world to me to grow for you on the same soil my grandpa and grandma worked. It wasnt always a garden. Before that, it was a lot for pigs to roam and root. I think of that every spring it fills with pigweed seedlings. But...I don't know anything about how it was used before that. The four generations of family farming has only had 75 years of this soil's life. Crazy to think my entire life is just a blip on the screen compared to the soil. But my short time on this soil can make all the difference. Its my goal to leave it better than I found it.

I am reminded of an early moment in childhood where, at Ash Wednesday, my pastor said, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Its taken from Genesis 3:19

Friday rocked my world as I watched news hit the community and watched the young people in my classroom lose their innocence and feel the hurt that comes with life's hardest lesson. Life is precious and tomorrow is not guaranteed.

We can get very wrapped up in our day to day. When life stops us in our tracks and humbles us to how fragile our lives really are. Yet in the time we are here, no matter how long or how short the years are, we can truly make a difference for the world and the people in our world.

The lives lost were difference makers. They influenced others as much as their short lives on this Earth allowed them to. Our lives are short. The world continues to turn when we are gone. Let us be good to the world, use our time to be good to others, give hugs when people are hurting. Say prayers for one another. Leave the world better than we found it.

Join me in praying for peace for the Schlechty, Armstrong, and Bemis families and all the people walking through the pain of loss. As I shared with students, do everything you can to be sure no one walks through it alone.