The worst job I ever had turned out to be a real blessing. I wanted to earn a bike so at 15 my job was to weed our 3000 square foot vegetable garden every day, alone. I’d start out in the late morning when the ground was hard and the weeds unforgiving. It was horrible. But then one day my father told me that if I got up earlier the ground would be softer and the weeds would give easier. The next day I was in the garden by 5 a.m. Turns out he was right. As the summer went on and “my” garden grew I fell in love with every bit of it; the warm sun on my back, the smell of the wet earth, the call of the different birds. The vegetables that came out of that garden never ceased to amaze me. I don’t think one single pea ever made it to the table though. And that sense of peace I felt being all alone so early in the morning has always stayed with me. Early morning is still my favorite time of day and I still love gardening, though my time is more limited so I stick to flowers for now..
