Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Dill Plant

I've been walking by my tiny container garden for the past few weeks not mentally registering the weedy, thin plant growing in the wrong container.  It looked like dill, but was not growing in the dill plant pot from last year, and so I ignored it. 
Today I finally gave in, stooped down and tore off a slender leaf to smell; and lo and behold, it was a dill plant! O, the joy!  I love my fresh herb garden, and especially my dill plant, which did not thrive last year.  To find it re-growing in the pot that housed my mosquito plant last year brings me great joy.  Somehow, some way, seeds fell out of the big herb pot, into this tiny side container, buried under the soil for a few dormant months, and sprouted me a fresh dill plant this season, for my edible enjoyment. 
O, the joy that we feel when we likewise plant random seeds of goodness here and there, never realizing that they have grown roots and flowered into a plant of good deeds.  The dua'a  of travel we taught a random student years ago when we were enjoying a roller coaster ride together, only to be remembered forever by her, and recounted to you ten years later.  The pot of spaghetti you cooked quickly for a new mother months ago, that sustained her during her hardest days at new motherhood.  The kind word you spoke, passingly, to a stranger, days ago, that helped him move through a moment of hardship and doubt, through a burning quest for personal understanding. 
It's moments like these, on the day of Judgment, that will come back to brighten our existence, and make us thankful for Allah's small mercies on us, for Him allowing us to throw around a good deed here and there, not realizing that it may truly have taken deep roots, flowered, and given sweet fruit and use to many around us. 
Now back to that container garden of mine; there really is nothing like a perennial herb garden, that gives and gives, year after year, without hardly any work on your behalf.  You do the initial act of planting the seed or seedling; you water it every once in a while, harvest its good leaves and flowers for flavor, and then wait for another spring to come around for that plant to come back up out of the dead ground with new growth, and plentiful use.  Do yourself a favor and plant a small garden today.  Sow your seeds of good deeds left and right, and realize that although you may never know that they took root and sprouted, they might be leaving behind a legacy that will come back out of the ashes and benefit a new generation of people after you.