When I started this blog last year, I was hoping to give expression to the fascinating dramas I regularly witness among the plants, bugs, wildlife – and now chickens – that make their home in my backyard.

I was familiar with the word “glean”, as defined in the Cambridge Dictionary: “to collect information in small amounts, and often with difficulty”; but I had only recently learned about the ancient practice of gleaning as a social and economic policy when I participated in an intensive study on the Old Testament Book of Ruth. Both meanings for “glean” seemed appropriate for the title of my little blog.

The first definition fit because I was hoping to share insights I gained by looking more closely at everyday things I typically just walk past.

The second definition worked because it was about going back to get more out of a harvest. When Moses laid out laws for the Israelites in the Book of Leviticus, he specifically commanded them not to harvest the very edges of their fields, but to leave those crops and any dropped produce for the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers. Gleaning wasn’t just a nice idea. It was the law.

In the Book of Ruth, gleaning is a survival tool for two destitute widows. After Ruth’s husband dies unexpectedly, her mother-in-law Naomi encourages her to return to her own people to find another husband and start a new life. But Ruth insists she will not leave Naomi (who is also newly widowed) and she accompanies Naomi back to her homeland. Ruth leaves her own people and culture behind, puts her future on hold and stands by her mother-in-law (who has a seriously bad attitude), confident the two women can navigate their uncertain future together.

Ruth was a gleaner. When she and Naomi had nothing to eat, Ruth went into a stranger’s fields and gathered leftover crops, which not only provided sustenance for her and her mother-in-law, but it also changed the trajectory of both their lives for the good.

I chose to feature Jean-Francois Millet’s “The Gleaners” on my blog site because I thought was a fitting tribute to hard-working people who are determined to look beyond what they don’t have and make the most of what is available to them. I love the strength and sense of purpose those three women exude as they work together in that field.

Earlier this month, my husband and I spent a day exploring the city of Lisbon after a week of cycling through the countryside of Portugal. We were excited to find the Banksy Museum – and took our time going from room to room, puzzling out the meanings implied in the life-size recreations of the mysterious artist’s provocative works.

I did not expect to turn a corner and come face-to-face with Banksy’s re-mixed interpretation of “The Gleaners”!

Instead of three hard-working women gleaning leftover scraps from a field, Banksy had removed one of the women and re-drawn her sitting on the edge of the picture frame, taking a cigarette break.

At first, I thought the painting might be a statement about unfair labor practices, but when I looked more closely at the expression on the frame-sitting woman’s face, I didn’t see anger. In fact, I thought she looked pretty content. Almost smug. Gritty, purposeful, enjoying a well-earned break. Proud to be able to provide food, despite her circumstances. Just like Ruth. It was perfect.

Just like Banksy’s cigarette-smoking gleaner, starting this blog has given me a chance to periodically step outside of my immediate circumstances and give more attention to little treasures that tend get obscured by the tyranny of everyday urgencies. It has helped me fight off the temptation to compare my life to others who appear to have more of everything I would like to have or to dwell on past mistakes and squandered opportunities.

So cheers to gleaning – to being unashamed to go back to a field and harvest what I can from what’s left. And to being content with my circumstances, whether I am in the main picture or sitting on the edge of the frame.

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.”

Leviticus 19:9-10