my life-seeking aspirations — was already teamed up with the seeds and drawing strength from the core elements of the universe — air , earth , fire and water .
For the price of planting them , over the next several months , the emergent plants would immeasurably expand my being and all of my senses and sensibilities , only to reward me with their delicious fruits at the end of summer . More than that , I would be filled with the wonder and awe of life taking place right before my very eyes starting from tiny seeds and ending up as fully-grown fruit and seed-producing beings of untold of majesty and complexity .
For all of this , I would only have to carry out the hard work of watering and weeding the plants , perhaps thinning them out , piling dirt around their bases and keeping away , as best as I could , any pests that might threaten their lives . On some level , their germination would also mark my own springtime rebirth as would their other processes of growth , maturation , flowering and fructification across the brief summer growing season that hints at the brevity of our own lives .
Each year , on an appointed day in May or very near to it , the increasing warmth of the sun , the spring runoff from the melting snows ( provided they come ) in the far away mountains and the welcoming , tepid earth , all conspire , to mathematically and miraculously , converge on the progressively longer days in the northern latitudes of the North American continent . Here on an expansive , high desert garden landscape , they begin working their magic in accordance with the laws of nature . Almost unperceptively , these powerful forces initiate the intricate processes whereby the seeds , in a matter of just a few days of gestation , awaken to life on the surface of Earth , the only planet in the cosmos so far known to harbor life . Within a short amount of time , the newly-sprouted plants in the form of one or two leafed seedlings must engage a world of mammoth proportions and , at times , crushing forces . By all indications , they would hardly stand a chance of surviving were it not for the helpful human hand aiding them along at every stage of their development . Indeed , it has been the human hand , human-gleaned knowledge and intuition which have played so decisive a role in the plants ’ domestication , cultivation and large-scale broadcast over the course of the last , approximately eight to ten thousand years .
Owing to such a tight partnership in which human beings deliberately sow and care for certain plants , while the plants themselves ultimately feed those who care for and bestow life upon them , cultigens such as corn , beans , squash and many others , are able to bond with humans in a single , symbiotic and mutually sustaining entity of sorts , and vice versa .
Cloaked in a mantle of green and eagerly seeking out the sun , the rain and the wind for a four or five month-long lifespan , the “ we ” entity comprised of plant and human being , realizes its life purpose by means of a robust and healthy growth process and maturation together with the culminating stages of florescence and fructification .
Nature has seen to it that each new generation of seed lies protectively encased at the center of a generous and succulent layer of inviting flesh just below the fruits ’ skins . Historically , in the interest of sharing these marvels of taste and nutrition with one another , humans felt compelled to liberally ( or for a price ) pass the fruits along to their neighbors .
With new people planting the old seeds , certain domesticated plants and their seeds have circulated far and wide while adapting to new environments and producing new plant and fruit varieties across many generations . In this way , the repeating pattern of life begetting life can conceivably go on forever as indeed it has .
W hile human beings principally concern themselves with procuring plentiful yields and increasing their storehouses of edible foodstuffs from this partnership , the plants appear to be content with living out rich lives , bearing fruit and multiplying . Who knows however , if the plants may harbor other responses toward humans given that intelligences of various kinds are known to permeate every form of life on our extraordinarily alive planet . In my age-old community , the elderly folk who have cared for fruit-bearing plants all of their lives and for many generations often exclaim “ My , that plant was so appreciative when we watered it or otherwise took care of its needs ”.
The native peoples of North America went further in their regard and understanding for the
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