Hope's Triumph

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Samuel Johnson said that a second marriage is "the triumph of hope over experience." That's how I feel about my pea patch.

Seda opposed growing peas this year. Our yields in the past several years have been less than impressive. The peas themselves turned starchy and dry, the pods stringy.

But something in me could not kick off the spring garden without them. Have you ever found yourself there, with a yen for something you can't quite understand?

Peas are symbolic, for sure. The sweetness of spring, tendriling skywards in chartreuse. What's not to love?

The romance of peas captures my heart. White blossom beauties overcome my frustration with slugs and fears of a spindly crop. I'm filled with hope in spring, and so I lay my peas to ground.

Not this year. I'd agreed with Seda and hadn't made the dig. But the merry pea starts at the garden store hooked me. I could not say no. And so I brought them home with a plan for a new pea site and a trellis.

At times, persistence is not a chore. Sometimes it's an irrepressible urge, like my desire to plant peas. I love that brand of persistence. I see people find it in my classes as they learn to communicate better with joy.

Hope makes the challenge manageable until we can get to the sweetness on the other side. Sometimes it's a long time coming.

I will not only plant peas again. I will do it differently. I will research and amend the soil more. I'll take data so that next year, when prodded by the goddess of spring, I will have an even better chance at chasing sweetness.

Because giving up on peas is like giving up on spring. It's just not in me.

What are you willing to work hard to learn? And how sweet is the celebration when you make the smallest of progress?
 

The last Friday in May is our Expanding Joy with Writing and Story class. Come write with us, just for fun! Your first time is free. Hit reply and ask for the details.

 
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