Green Thumb

I remember the first thing I ever planted. It was a blue rose bush. It was in front of our house on 75th Street, in Los Angeles,  CA.

When I was 7 years-old, my mother bought three rose bushes. One for my sister, one for her, and one for me. We each dug a hole and planted our bushes, hoping they would beautify the perimeter of our house, which was already overflowing with spearmint.

Weeks went by and nothing happened. The plants didn't sprout flowers, no leaves grew, no progress was made, then one spring day I noticed my sister's bush began to produce.

"Mom, look!" I said, "Sunni's flower is growing." She looked at me and said, "It is, isn't it?"
I was secretly jealous. Why was her plant flourishing and mine looked line someone's neglected little thorn stump?

Pretty soon, my mother's bush started blooming. I was really jealous then. Mine was the only one that hadn't produced a single leaf.

"What's wrong with my roses?" I thought. "How come I don't get to see any blue roses in front of the house?" I wondered.

It wasn't fair! I wanted pretty flowers too.

By the end of spring and summer I had come to terms with the fact that I might not have a "green thumb." I remembered having my own patch of a vegetable garden years before the rose bush, and I was in charge of the spinach. The spinach grew.

It was up to me to figure out what it was I could grow.

Now I know what I can grow. I can grow interest in a topic that some people didn't think was a serious issue before they spoke to me or read something I have written.

I can make people aware that there are alternate ways of doing things they do everyday, whether is living, eating, growing your own food.

I can grow peoples knowledge that they too, can do something to change to world.
I can grow my son's interest in being a dirt worshiping tree hugger like his mommy.

What can you grow?