When he was small, my youngest son had a habit of filling his pockets with treasures he encountered in his daily adventures. I didn't always understand the value he saw in his chosen objects -- really, how many rocks and sticks could one boy keep? In his eyes, though, each one was beautiful and important. Life is just like that on a larger scale, isn't it? We gather up the precious bits of our experiences and save them all to learn from and enjoy later. Perhaps you'll find a little something here that you'd like to keep in your own pockets. Thanks for visiting.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Little green sprouts



Early on Mother's Day morning, Will presented me with the sweetest little clay flowerpot, one that he had very carefully fingerpainted with pretty little trees, a ladybug, the sun, and a lovely blue sky.  Inside the pot was a tiny pod of soil into which he had very delicately pushed two sunflower seeds with his finger earlier in the week.  When Will handed the pot to me, his whole face was lit up in a proud smile, and he was very excited about the fact that there was a tiny green shoot just starting to push through the soil where one of the seeds had sprouted.  It was really a wonderful little moment to share with my youngest boy.

In the week and a half that has passed since then, Will has taken a very active role in helping me care for the little sunflower seeds.  He often waters them before I have a chance to get to them in the morning, and he checks them regularly to see how they've grown.  He moves the little flowerpot around to different locations to make sure it is getting the best sun and to protect its delicate little sprouts from a certain cat who sometimes likes to eat plants.  He has chosen a perfect spot in our garden for me to plant the sprouts when they're ready, and asks me every day if I think it's time yet to let them out in the big wide world.  Will knows that all of his love and care for these little green plants are going to turn them into something beautiful; he tells me how lovely the flowers will be when they finally show their sunshiney faces and how happy they will make us all feel.

I really love those little sunflower sprouts in their precious pot and everything they represent to me.  Whenever I am having a moment where I'm being hard on myself, thinking there are many ways in which I could be a better mom, the two eager green shoots remind me that I'm growing something really special, too.  I think of Will so tenderly caring for those little seeds and it makes me smile and ease up on myself, knowing as a gardener that a beautiful boy, like a beautiful flower, is almost always the product of knowing love.

No comments:

Post a Comment