Grow

She fills her hands with the smell of herbs and stands and sniffs at them and grins. She dumps her water pail around the tops of the flowers while she watches Cole take care of this little patch of garden in the mornings, and again before dinner-- she is learning. This is the best thing we can do for the kids. Get them growing. Watch the earth magic at work in these marvelous little examples. She pulls strawberries off the plants and feasts, and has a close eye on the big cluster of blueberries hinting at turning ripe. I feel good knowing that at least she knows strawberries don't just come from a plastic container. Small steps. Keep her hands in the dirt and let it get under her skin, let her make the connection. At the end she will know from experience that you have to love and respect your little patch of dirt to get the flowers blooming and the food to ripen, and the hope here, is that same love and respect will be carried over to the way she cares about the rest of the earth. It's important to us that one of the things that this little girl will be able to say to people as she gets older is: "I can grow food."

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