the gift of life

My mom is nearly perfect at a lot of things. She is an astounding writer, a pianist, a singer, a comic, a bleeding heart. I could rave about this beautiful woman endlessly. Having a flaw here or there is bound to happen, even to my mom. She simply cannot keep a potted plant alive. While I have distinct memories of home grown delectable chard, her indoor plants always seemed to get replaced with the fake plants.

I have come to believe that this natural ability to destroy a living plant is heritable, as I have inherited this lack of plant-talent. So, when Eliza's mom gave me the gift of life-- some flowers to be less dramatic-- to be planted as a gift a few weeks back I was at once touched and stressed. I knew I was bound to destroy this plant.

This may sound exaggerated. It's not. I received an indoor tree of sorts from Joe's Mom, Jackie, as a memorial gift in remembrance of my sister, Kristen. The importance of keeping this one alive was utterly heavy. Well, the potting soil I planted the tree in soon came to life with millipedes. Let's just say I over-did the millipede killing and poisoned the tree with bug spray.

Do you see where I am going here? These flowers are not going to make it! If you, the reader, are concerned about this plant staying alive you may want to contact some type of plant protective services. ... But, enough with the theatrics. The plant is doing fine. For Now.

I've decided that I would like Eliza to grow up without acquiring a ridiculous fear of becoming a plant-killer. To ensure this I thought I should grow some plants with Eliza. I mentioned to Brigitta my disappointment in not being able to plant a real garden now or in our upcoming apartment. She told me about something called CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I found such a farm that will be near us in Florida. It charges 22 dollars per week and requires 4 hours per week of work for the farm. For this fee and work you are delivered 1 dozen eggs plus 8-10 fresh produce items each week. (I'm hoping they will 1/2 the price and 1/2 the amount of food for us). I am thrilled. Eliza will be learning what sort of work goes into our food as well as how to take care of a garden. We will be able to take part in the production of our own food. Fresh food. Mostly organic food. Could it get much better? It could get worse if my plant killing spreads, overtaking the farm.