How Does Your Garden Grow?

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you, but not from you...

Kahill Gibran

Have I conveyed to you how proud I am of my daughter?  Baby Girl was born an old soul, a child of God who has been around for eons. She's much more enlightened than I am.

Take for example this evening. I checked in with her as usual on my cell while driving home from work. (Before you jump to conclusions, let me just say that my cell conversations while driving are always "hands free.") I don't know what we did before the days of "family plan" calling contracts. Rarely a day goes by when the daughter figure and I don't reach out and touch each other via cell waves. Our daily conferences began years ago when she moved to the big city--sort of a soothing pacifier for mother/daughter separation anxiety. As the years fly by, the calls continue, although, I suspect, I am more dependent upon them than she. But I digress...

Anyway, Baby Girl proceeded to tell me about her week at work. She had scored a major victory in the office dynamics department with a boss who is beginning to value her opinions and suggestions. Did she do this by subterfuge and back-stabbing office politics? No. She quietly waited for her boss to seek her out and request her input. Then she gave her pragmatic observations on building a practice in a down economy and allowed her boss to digest and evaluate her ideas.

I signed off, thinking how lucky I am to know such a Zen master-in-the-making. I marvel at her wisdom and insight at such a young age. It occurs to me that she is just like her grandmother. My mother served for decades as a church secretary--the key word here is "served." Do you know what it's like to have 300 people who all think they're your boss? She became a master of diplomacy, a model of humility. Did those whom she served honor and value her? Absolutely.

The wonder of it all is that Baby Girl's grandmother died when BG was only twelve. In those twelve years, they were largely separated by 1400 miles. I have to deduce that the traits my daughter inherited from her grandmother are hard-wired into her genes. I'd like to take full credit for the amazing young woman my daughter has become, but...if the debate arises over whether Nature or Nurture most influenced her growth, Nature surely wins. Grandmother and granddaughter share the same intuitive grace and freedom from ego. I can claim little of the honor for Baby Girl's amazing growth. I merely stand in awe at what Nature so exquisitely designed.

And I ask you--how does your garden grow?