Look what I grew!

This year’s crop isn’t impressive enough for me to take a picture of my zinnia bed – they came up in random places, the seeds clearly displaced (and seedlings eaten) by furry visitors in my yard – but, some are coming up. Enough bloom each week I can have a handful in a glass on my kitchen table and I’m choosing to see that glass as full, instead of thinking that my garden is sparse.

A person’s yard or garden is often a sign about what’s happening inside a house or person. I have a neighbor who offers to mow overgrown yards in our neighborhood because she believes they’re a cry for help from a homeowner who’s overwhelmed by other things. She’s a much kinder soul than I am, but I’m sure some of the time she’s not wrong.

My mother sent me this photo, of zinnias growing out of a crack in her walkway this summer.

She knows how I struggle every year to get mine to grow and was teasing me, because she didn’t even plant these! So what are those zinnias telling her?

Working at a Farmer’s Market this summer, I hear vendors talk about how much of farming/growing is out of our hands and have a new appreciation for the phrase “make hay while the sun shines.” After years spent giving my time and love to a human colander, I’m trying to direct my energy toward the soil again. I may not be able to control what grows, but I can give everything a solid start, then let it go – perhaps to be carried off by birds and replanted in someone else’s sidewalk. Beauty is still beauty, whether I get to enjoy it or not, so I’ll keep putting my seeds out there.