Flowers and things.

I like growing things.

I remember my first "garden." I was a sophomore in high school. I bought a couple plastic pots, a handful of Tulip bulbs, and a six-pack of Salvia splendens 'Red Hot Sally' from Orchard Supply Hardware. I set them outside of my window on the roof where I would watch the airplanes flying to and fro SJC.

Fast forward eight years...I got a job working as a landscaper with a magical man named Brad. He has a tremendous knowledge of plants, gardening and landscaping, and has a very animistic view towards the Plantae kingdom.

Once I saw him split a massive boulder, hundreds of pounds, with five swings of a sledge hammer! He told me, "You have to listen to it, and find it's center...find it's weak spot, like a hairline fissure in it somewhere." Then he swung his sledge as it came down with a not so mighty sounding 'PING'! Again, 'PING'! And then again, 'PING', and this time, I heard a crack. Two more and the thing was cracked in half. Amazing.


He taught me to be the same way with plants. Understand them. Have empathy for the plant. Know it so intimately that you can tell what is wrong by just looking at it. Ultimately, I learned to respect and love plants.

As with people, you cannot assume to understand someone new right away. You can have an idea by what others have said, but sometimes people behave differently in new situations and environments. It takes time to get to know someone, and they are not always easy to get along with. Some are extremely picky, some will get along just about anywhere. Some are stubborn, and it takes years before they finally are in the right space, and have gotten what they truly need, before they open up...and bloom.





All, however, are entitled to be just as they are, and are beautiful in their own unique ways.