garden potentially

The wind has hardly stopped blowing, the last two weeks. Maybe when I make it back to the garden plot, today or tomorrow, it will have been so kind as to just sweep away all that gritty, depleted clay and leave us a clean slate to start from. I did find some free topsoil on craigslist, but haven't had a moment to think about getting it yet. For now, I've added a few bags of compost and pre-packaged topsoil (isn't it weird, that you can buy dirt), built a two-sided compost bin, and set out some little plants that friends gave us. Along with a dozen jalapenos that I bought, so there would be something visible for the people who come there. Can't have too many jalapenos, surely. On my visits I carry gratitude for the help that's been offered so far. One good friend came with me to clear weeds and break ground. He brought his own shovel, an hour or two of hard work, and a blessing spoken over the space when we finished. Another brought tools and helped me repair the first of the little greenhouses, the essential first step to making this place habitable for young growing things.

Last Wednesday I had help from one of the kids -- hopefully the first of many. A second-grader, waiting for his mom to finish English class. Everybody said he had been nothing but trouble in the classroom, and I might find him hard to work with, but I thought he was great. He shoveled dirt, carried water, was polite and friendly, and made remarks that showed he was thinking for himself about the whole process. I told him, come back next week and help us again if you like. But the woman who lives and works at the center of this community told me, a few days later, that he came back the next day -- on his own -- and watered all our little transplants. That bit of information is probably the most encouraging thing I've heard in the last week.

Right now at home are some tiny sprouts, lamentably late, that will soon show themselves to be corn, chard, radishes, and others not yet identifiable. Two or three tomato plants are ready to move. More seeds just went in yesterday. Many gardeners recognize the planting of every seed as a prayer. With so many thoughts right now of frustration and unrecognized potential -- in me, in this world of struggle -- I wait for these specks of possibility to green into the visible answers of YES so much needed in this moment.