Amen! This is something that has always bugged me and I see it on a frequent basis, working tangentially in a service industry. I'll leave it at that.

The garden is already giving up its bounty as we had raspberry's over the weekend and the first ripe tomato. On Sunday we planted a large section of corn with four varieties that will ripen at different times so we will be in corn for about two months straight starting in late July. We also started two onion sets. The blue jays got every last one of the cherries again this year, but I think about six gave up their lives for that pleasure. Hope it was worth it. The pluot and plum trees are COMPLETELY loaded with fruit and we will need to start propping up the branches to save the trees from total destruction from the weight. One hen has been sitting on about 10 eggs and they should start hatching this weekend.

Another living miracle in progress is the blooming of the century plant in the front yard. It was planted there when we were building the house 15 years ago and this year it decided to complete it's life's purpose. The stalk grew like bamboo and is now over twenty five feet high, higher than head level from the second story deck. I will post a couple pictures later. The plants' twin will do the same in two or three years, then all the little seedlings will continue for 'centuries'.

I was talking with someone about how our family has always had gardens and animals, even when living in San Francisco. We had rabbits and chickens and a garden in the Richmond district 2 blocks from Golden Gate Park and 8 blocks from the beach. The neighbors did not take kindly to the rooster at first, but all complaining stopped once we started sharing fresh eggs and vegetables. We also had a full grown redwood tree, with tree house in the backyard and it was a sad day when we had to cut it down. It was one of the conditions placed on the sale of the house by the Chinese family that bought it from my parents. They were very afraid that the tree's spirit was going to be angry that we were moving and we had to remove it to appease them. Back to the conversation about plants: we were talking about the importance of nature in the development of children and how kids in cities often are deprived of that. Working with plants is a relationship, sure they will grow without help from us, but as I learned with my very first garden patch as a 6 year old if I did not take the time to water, fertilize and weed my broccoli (yes I chose broccoli as a six year old, I still love the stuff), it would not be nearly as healthy and fruitful as it could be. It is a lesson I still need to remind myself of frequently. We get out of life only as much as we put in. It is in watering, weeding, and fertilizing our relationships with friends, lovers, and family (OFF TOPIC and obscure- I just have to interject that that if you can find any of FLF's music grab it or at least give it a listen, completely engrossing and beautiful, most of it is on the old school vinyl label LUSH) that they and we can bloom as the best, most whole people we can be.