Lettuce with a Lesson

This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.

How can it be that the earth has already warmed enough to produce a bed of luscious lettuce? I’m not complaining. Delicate leaves of homegrown lettuce carry the subtle scent and flavor of spring. Each year I grow and change in my perspective and capacities, and lettuce is always there for me. Those first bites annually allow me to discover the plant and myself anew, as we do when we make a pilgrimage back to our place of origin. This is a pilgrimage to season, to spring. A pilgrimage to lettuce.

This year, notably, the arrival of lettuce has made it clear that a change in planting is in store. My body is changing, and so is my diet. I now eat in a 3 hour window daily, and that means I’m generally eating less than before. That full bed of lettuce calls, and I cannot freeze the tasty dears, though I do share aplenty.

I love salad for sure. But next year, I suspect that greater variety will be traded in: green beans, peppers, Roma tomatoes. I love how the garden offers its gifts in waves. I receive and give back in like rhythm. We adjust to one another, we grow together. We see ourselves and each other with fresh eyes each season.

What plant has taught you something about yourself lately?