The Thing That Makes Me Happiest - Draft 4.5
The same day I planted irises in the yard outside my Tiny Cottage, I pulled up a bunch of weeds that usually grow so tall I can't see my car behind them . I also broadcast a collection of seeds - broadleaf and holy basils, poppies, tomatoes, zinnias - around the stump next to the driveway. And then I forgot all about the project. Farming is hard work, not just from the perspective of the farmer but also from the perspective of the seed. Everything's an enemy: the sun, the rain, the bugs, the birds, the other plants. As a new sprout you are in constant danger of being eaten, strangled, or baked. As the weeds grew back in around the stump, I noticed a zinnia standing a little taller than everybody else. It seemed to be the only product of my sowing to survive, all cute and limey-green. And then some days later, the thing happened that makes me happiest: Another human came along and, with no idea that I was responsibl...