If you want a garden

March 11 2024

There is a song that says, “if you want a garden, first you got to plant a seed”. And in the garden of the house that Filly was staying at, someone knew a lot about gardening.

The roses were the size of a adult persons head, fragrant and deep red, orange and yellow, planted by the mother in law whose expertise in plants was renowned in the neighborhood. The stairs going down to the entrance, were bordered by purple flowers and the side yard had two blooming dogwood trees that the deer actually left alone. The red maple at the top of the stairs provided a brilliant canopy of fluttering leaves. And the pots hanging on the sides of each stair were full of succulents.

In the kitchen, beside the white triple decker bowl of navel oranges, apples, tomato's, bananas and avocado’s was a bag of “good seed” bread. Filly thought to herself, it is not enough to just plant a seed, it has to be a good seed. And if it is a good seed, it will “bear fruit”, or “be productive” and of good report. This house had good seed.

And other family’s she encountered, also were “good seed”.

For example, when visiting the family who homeschool their three boys and one little girl, Filly saw that the two little buddies she was visiting, along with her daughter, also had no electronics to be seen no TV to watch and no hand held devices.

Instead what was visible, was a back yard with riding toys, throwing toys, climbing toys and digging toys. Things that kids could do “hands on” with no fear of retribution or damage to their space.

The littlest one sat on the ground, surrounded by taller siblings and adults but her focus was also on the littlest creature in the room, a little dog. She made faces at it, lay down to see from it’s perspective, threw the toy for it, and tried to pat it.

The innocent interactions of children always entertained Filly and with that consistent view of the many families she got to meet, she felt like there were indeed many good seeds.

Later, at the farmers market, they walked about stalls with artichokes, broccoli, fresh peaches with their fuzzy skins, sweet nectarines, fresh raw milk with cream on top, homemade crepes with Nutella and strawberries, as well as fragrant bouquets of flowers and potted plants.

In the subdued bustle and frenzy of this market, the children again all found each other, and as friends, held hands communicating face to face, and explored the many stalls. (filly also felt right at home with the stalls lol) The children eventually found a red checkered cloth table to share the crepes, and the chocolate dipped apricots, while they admired the flowers that had been purchased, running from stall to stall, talking and laughing.

Again more good seeds. Like the farmers market in Saratoga California, there were also many wonderful families with good core values like what Filly was raised with and the garden of good seeds was indeed planted and The harvest would indeed be rich with fruit. Those tending the garden, mothers and fathers, were doing a good job. Filly was grateful.