I like to garden. I particularly like to garden from seed. There is something magical about seeing this tiny seed, like a cosmos seed for example, and watch it grow throughout the season. The entire plant cycle provides you with the opportunity to understand the circle of life. Because this little seed…

…will grow into this light, feathery plant…

…and produce these beautiful flowers…

…and then turn itself back into seeds.

It is truly amazing. What’s even more amazing is that it takes very little effort from me, once the seeds are planted, for it to complete this cycle. Provide an occasional watering if the weather is ornery. Use a support stick and a little twine if it starts to bend away from the sun or starts to fall. Give a little extra food to one or two plants if they seem to struggle. But really, in general, I find that plants genuinely want to grow. You just have to give them a safe and healthy place to do it. 

My love of gardening, and my role in it, mimics my professional life too. I like to take a small, new, curious thing and help it grow and help it reach its ultimate potential. Most students, like plants, genuinely want to grow. I make sure there is enough growing material n place when the semester starts. I show them where to start. I water them with encouragement. I provide the support if they start tilting away from the light. I feed them with other materials if they begin to struggle. But more than all of that, before they are planted, I spend my time creating a safe and healthy place for them to grow. 

Unlike my garden, students move on before I get to see them go to seed.  But there is something wonderful about being part of their cycle that allows me the chance to see these tiny buds of understanding form.

• 

• 

• 

I like to think the end of my courses are like the month of June when gardens are green and full of life. There is a kaleidoscope of colors peeking out from the new buds, some just opening and some just buds pushing against their seams. The hope of a full bloom is my reward for those dormant weeks of mid-May when I wondered if I was doing enough for them, if there was something else I should be doing, and resisting the urge to overwater. 

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” 

― Robert Louis Stevenson