Gotta tend the earth...

... if you want a rose. (Indigo Girls, Hammer & a Nail.)

Today is my day to garden. I love to tend my vegetable garden. It's so rewarding to work the dirt and nurture plants.

This year's garden has cucumber, tomato (grape, yellow pear, early girls, and steak), yellow crookneck squash, red bell peppers, zucchini, and herbs (basil, thyme, rosemary, cilantro). Right now, I'm waiting for the grape tomatoes to ripen. There are many. We also have a zucchini and some cucumbers growing. And there are many buds on the other tomato plants. Fruits of my labor. Real fruit! That's gratification.

It's so satisfying to work in the yard. I think it's the feeling of creating something from the earth. Or nurturing something that's alive. Pruning, cutting, tilling the soil, weeding. All day long, five days a week, I sit at a desk under fluorescent lights, the life seeping out of me. When I get home, the garden reminds me of life and growth, reinvigorating me. It allows me perspective on the days I sit in an office, not creating or growing anything.

Actually, I have plants on my desk. I give them a lot of attention. One is a Christmas Cactus, one is a Peace Lily, and I don't know what the other two are called. I talk to them, water them, give them plant food. They are like an oasis on my desk. A reminder that beyond the walls of the office, and the concrete of the city, a lush green world awaits waiting for attention. They are brave plants to be surviving office life.

I just finished reading Falling Boy by Alison McGhee. It was a really good book. It's been a while since I sat down to read a good book and this reminded me that I love to read. It wasn't a book that changed my life, but I enjoyed reading it and I thought it was well written. It's about a boy, Joseph, who is paraplegic, living in a new town and working in a bakery (one of the reasons I liked it, since I, too, used to work in a bakery/cafe). The two people he interacts most with are a brother and sister who have some interesting issues and have this desire to see Joseph as a superhero. The story of the brother and sister and Joseph's past unfolds in the book. It's a short book (208 pages) and worth the read.