SEEDS FROM PLOT 509

     In my experience, I notice that there's always a perpetual forward motion to life. I find, for example, that in my gardens something, perhaps called Nature, continues to encourage life to move forward. Just this last spring, there was a very powerful hailstorm that obliterated my summer squash and my heirloom tomatoes. Their leaves were just shredded. Seeing this, I threw up my hands and said, "I guess that's it for my zucchinis and tomatoes."

     But a trusty garden friend of mine, by the name of Curly, told me to have faith. He said to water my beaten down plants with a mix of water and fish emulsion and to have faith. I doubted this, but something in me told me that it couldn't hurt to try it.

      Thinking about it a bit later, I felt that maybe if I put loving intention into my act of supplemental watering that it would have a positive effect. Well, about two or three weeks later, these very same plants, that I had pronounced dead, came back to life with renewed vim and vigor.

     Another example of this force is how powerful weeds are. My husband and I weed our plots on a weekly basis, hoeing away and digging for endless roots and yet these plants we call weeds are mighty survivors to the tenth power - both here in the plots and in the more natural areas that these weeds grow for some purpose unknown to me.

     I think that there's an inherent drive in nature to propel life forward. This motion, I feel, is ignited by something divine yet not by something exclusive to any religion or science. I think that this forward motion is part of a force that is yet to be discovered and understood.

     Something tells me that this and this alone is the greatest mystery, but maybe it's just a mystery to us on this side of life. I know, in my heart, that this is true, even though I have no science to back me up. I felt so affirmed by these beautiful and thriving plants that came back from the ravages of that hailstorm. The weeds, though annoying, do impress me by their vigilance.

     Perhaps I had enough faith and enough intention. It is this faith and intention that helps me look beyond the catastrophic news - like hurricanes, worldwide genocide, and our local neighborhood violence. I have no choice but to think that there will be a tomorrow for the world, especially for my family. I feel also that the force that brings about the weeds is very powerful in itself. We just have to remember that life is a powerful force. We also have to remember that weeds have pretty flowers too.

     By Aspen Marks