Today I spent fifteen minutes in my garden, plucking weeds from betwixt and between the tiny sprouts of lettuce and spinach. I hadn’t intended to weed but when I walked past my modest patch on the way to feed the birds, lo! Little lettuces and spinach poking up! Locked in earthy combat with weeds!
It was mid-March when I planted these seeds. Two varieties of lettuce: “Deer Tongue” and “Sweet Valentine.” The spinach is “Long Standing Bloomsdale.”
I’ve been racking my writerly brains for a Sweeping Metaphor about how the mid-March Lesley who planted the seeds connects to and embodies the early-May Lesley; how the history-making weeks between these manifests some great Insight or Truth.
I got nothin’. I can’t do better than observing that seeds hew to their innate seed-ness with quiet grace and aplomb. So I’m following their lead, trying my best to hew to what feels innate to me and to act with quiet grace and a soupçon of aplomb.
So far this includes
feeding the birds, and
Goldfinch!
journaling, and
A journal entry I nevereverever want someone else to read. Suzi Banks Baum introduced me to this technique.
meditating, and
painting teeny tiny watercolors every day.
This is enough for now.
May you, too, find a daily act … and manifest it with grace and aplomb.
the Art of Practice 
I always saw you acting with grace and aplomb. But we can always nurture that innate seed-ness of ours–if we recognize. Lovely to hear from you! Big virtual hug. xo
Val, you are a kind and generous woman. I remember mostly being freaked out during the time of life our paths crossed at VSC. Hah! Hope you and all your beloveds are well.