Garden Meditations
By Reverend Max Coots

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.
For children who are our second planting, 
and though they grow like weeds 
and the wind too soon blows them away, 
may they forgive us our cultivation 
and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks:
For generous friends, with hearts 
- and smiles - 
as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends, 
as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, 
who, like scallions and cucumbers, 
keep reminding us that we've had them;

For crotchety friends, 
sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, 
who are as gorgeous as eggplants 
and as elegant as a row of corn, 
and the others, 
as plain as potatoes and so good for you;

For funny friends, 
who are as silly as Brussels sprouts 
and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;

And serious friends as unpretentious as cabbages, 
as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, 
as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini 
and who, like parsnips, 
can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, 
nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time 
and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, 
who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, 
despite our blights, wilts, and witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, 
like gardens past that have been harvested, 
but who fed us in their time 
that we might have life thereafter.

For All These We Give Thanks!

Reprinted by permission of Reverend Max Coots (c) 1980 
from Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul 
by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Cynthia Brian, 
Cindy Buck, Marion Owen, Pat Stone 
and Carol Sturgulewski.