My son and I were talking today about what is important that people often overlook. I told him the story of someone on /r/gardening who posted that she was a first time gardener in love with a cucumber tendril, and the picture showed a perfectly formed spiral at the end of a tendril. I told my son how important the tendrils are, because they allow the cucumbers to climb, keeping the fruit off the ground so insects can't attack it.
I also told him how I love taking macro pictures of tiny parts of plants, like tiny wildflowers and even weeds, or just the way a vine climbs or a seed pod. I told him that every tiny part of an organism has an important function, and it all just fascinates me. I think people think I'm silly sometimes, because at 65, I still get excited over little stuff like seeds sprouting and first blossoms on a bean plant.
I told that person on the gardening forum what I've told my kids all their lives; to never lose that sense of wonder and amazement at life. All of us should take time to look at the tiniest flowers, or notice a bee at work, or even a caterpillar and how it crawls. If you do carpentry or DIY notice how the threads of a screw are so perfectly spiraled that they hold two pieces of heavy wood together for hundreds of years. For that matter, who ever designed a safety pin was insanely brilliant, when you think about it.
There is some much to wonder about and be in awe of all around us. I watched the road outside my apartment be repaved the other week, and it was remarkable just seeing how much work went into it, the engineering, the intricacy of laying the final layer of asphalt. I watched the men who walked behind the asphalt spreader and "swept" it over into driveways and made the edges smooth. Now every time I walk down that nice, smooth road, I smile at how even with all that, the grass still comes up through the edges.
I'm planning on being a vandweller next year, and I can't wait to travel this country and see all the wondrous things, grand mountains, huge canyons, expansive prairies, raging rivers -- and tiny wildflowers.
Submitted July 02, 2017 at 07:27PM by anybodyanywhere http://ift.tt/2uzQyXI
