I love the way he labelled them and lined them up along the windowsill "for every drop of sunlight". Though he is sad we don't have the time or means to maintain a community garden plot this year, I know he understands our former plot will go to others whose seeds will grow in the soil we helped maintain. A beautiful circle of life.
"Look at the dark tips on my lavender sprouts," he exclaimed. I nodded and smiled, trying to calibrate my excitement at seeing his hands succeed where mine often fail.
The Brandywine heirloom tomato sprout was greeted with a high-five- it's one of our most anticipated fruits for the coming summer.
"Thank you," I told the Eldest as I stared at his "final surprise". He wondered why I was thanking him.
"It's the first beet sprout I've ever seen," I confessed. "And.... I love it." He blushed and hugged me, but not without adding, "Awww Mom, you're going to make me turn beet red."
If only he knew what powerful seeds he sows in my heart with this dedication and determination to grow his own garden- to grow his own way, to grow anyway, in spite of my unspoken longing sometimes to kiss his not-so-little feet and toes. So it goes.
