Growing

I love my garden. It's twice the size of last year's and I'm already concocting plans to expand, again. I love the experience of growing something from nothing. Of seeing a tiny seed morph into a six foot plant, bursting with fruit, right before my eyes. I love witnessing the change that one good rainstorm can bring and the unbelievable growth inspired by the warmth of the sun. I love the taste of it all, whether it's a spicy Caribbean chili pepper, deep green basil or the complex burst of flavor from a tomato still warm from the sun. And I love that the kids love it. They're just as excited as I am to see a new cucumber or revel in the gargantuan blossoms of the zucchini plants. They'll pass by and pop cherry tomatoes in their mouths right in the middle of a round of tag. They'll run inside to announce the first yellow bell pepper. They're invested in it, too.

I realized the other day that working with the garden and the other plants around our home is such a great lesson in life for us all. When we arrived on this vacant lot and decided to break ground three and a half years ago, it was nothing. Now it is full of trees and shrubs and flowers and vegetables. It's alive with green life and we're thrilled to be in the middle of it. We learn from our mistakes and wait out changes in our tactics and find out what works. We test our theories and try new ideas. We see the ramifications of our actions. And things bloom, or die or multiply, just like life. How lucky we are to have this living metaphor that feeds us in so many ways.