Done by Susan L.

  It was a beautiful day yesterday. The garden beckoned. The bag of dirt beckoned more. It's finally empty. It took a lot of work, wheelbarrow and I, to get to the most wonderful sight: the bottom of the bag.
  There was a hidden treasure deep inside: a walnut that had started to sprout. It was basically a white stick with a couple of leaf buds on it. It was probably white because it hadn't got any sun. The roots looked very healthy. Its tenaciousness and determination made me reluctant to simply toss it away. There wasn't any harm in sticking it in the garden to see if it continues growing.
  There was also a sugar maple seedling growing in the front flower bed. I'll not see any great size in my lifetime but I know from experience, a seedling grows as fast as a five foot tree that's been purchased at a nursery. A seedling will sprout where the seed is happiest. I only moved it to get it out from under the peonies.
  These two tiny bursts of life won't see much size in my lifetime but it gives me a couple of options once the big tree out front is taken down. Walnuts would feed the squirrels and birds. A sugar maple turns a glorious shade of red in the fall. Its seeds also feed small mammals and the birds as well.
  They also represent a whole whack of hope and, for me, a rare hint at the future. Someone will be able to enjoy these majestic examples of deciduous glory once they reach maturity in a hundred years or so.
  "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper." Ps 1:1-3