23 September 2009

Michelle Obama: Garden "one of the greatest things I've done"

Just saw this from the Chicago Sun Times -- Michelle Obama (Love her!) talking at the opening of the new DC farmers market described starting the vegetable garden at the White House as "one of the greatest things that I've done in my life so far."

I read that, and thought, "Really?" I mean, Michelle Obama has done a lot of great things, is the garden actually near the top of the list?

I thought back to when gardening exploded into my life as a high school student -- More than just a great thing, it changed me in innumerable ways. Gardening has become the passion that has driven my education, life and career -- and changed how I live, how I face the world.

What do I mean by that? I could list a thousand examples, but one comes to mind:

 A few years ago, a friend of mine took her own life. It was the worst possible news. I cried, of course, talked to friends, of course. But what I really did was sit by a clump of blooming daffodils with my hands on the good earth around them.

A garden teaches me how to live. One of the greatest things I've done? Absolutely.

1 comment:

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

One is reminded of the ending of Voltaire's Candide, the one sentence that makes it a great book. "Excellently observed--" (Candide in response to some facile philosophizing from Martin and Pangloss) "--but we must cultivate our garden."