Peeling Garlic

I was peeling garlic on Tuesday night, plucking off the green sprouts that had quickly formed after a day or two home from the grocery store.

I thought about growth, about change and the magic of letting your natural rhythms take over.

What makes the garlic shoot out stalks of green, begging to be planted in the thawing ground? What in me is the same?

Ava asked us a few weeks ago if plants had brains. We said no. Yet, I was left feeling like there was more to say about that.

Sometimes brains just get in the way.

I listened to a podcast a year ago, it was probably Radiolab, that talked about a plants ability to learn. If they don’t have brains, how are they learning?

Is there something more cellular about learning? Do we attribute learning to the brain incorrectly?

You don’t learn unless you are challenged. And you can’t change if you aren’t challenged. And we all know how most humans feel about change.

When I tell people that I think Emilio has managed the change of the last year the best I’m not being glib, or humble bragging about my kid. I’m serious. And I think part of it is because he’s at an age where he’s desperate for change. He wants to be challenged. He wants to grow and learn. There is something in his cells drawing him towards it. He knows, right now, that change is good because it means more.

When we first moved in to our house on Long Island one of the things I looked forward to was planting my first garden. And I expanded it every year after. I think I missed one season when I was pregnant with Ava, even then wild tomato plants grew.

The call of Spring is felt in my cells too. I want to get my hands in the dirt. I want to nestle seeds in to the ground and then nurture them as they grow.

But I also know I need to have harmony and balance in my world and I’m not sure the effort of a garden fits in just yet.

This past weekend the house was filled with people, while the doors and windows were opened to let in the first warm weekend in months. We flowed in and out of the house. Music, drinks, snacks, people. Dirty shoes, meals in and out, balls and frisbees and bikes. It filled me up.

I talked to my Mom about my desire to grow plants and to not fill my time up with growing plants. She helped me let it go.

On Sunday afternoon our neighbors returned from Home Depot with a pink flower for Ava. She planted it in the ground with my Mom.

“We have a surprise for you!” They both said as I came out of the house.

I love that little pink flower. And I’ll love watching Ava nurture it. Even if it means we all get sprayed by the house too.