Gardening is not for sissies.
You'll work muscles you didn't know you had (and they'll hurt tomorrow). Dirt and sweat are part of the package. You'll discover slimy, slithering and squirming things. After busting your gardening budget preparing the soil and planting the seeds, a 15 minute hailstorm will devastate all of your efforts. Foliage will spring up overnight and get chewed down the next day by unseen mandibles. You'll sunburn the tops of your feet making sure your garden never dries out. Fire ants will eat your root vegetables before you harvest. Squirrels will strip your corn, melon and nectarines.
Or - you'll get more zucchini and tomatoes than you can deal with! You'll eat a tender beet salad (with their steamed greens) garnished with pod peas every week all summer. You'll finally get to smell the warm-honey fragrance of pear blossoms. You'll make new friends swapping potato recipes. You'll learn that planting sweet potatoes in huge patio containers lets you harvest them much more easily and you'll enjoy their bright green vine foliage into the fall.
There's nothing like planting a tiny seed, nurturing it with your hopes and perspiration, and enjoying the fruits of your labor, recognizing that the whole process involved a complexity of miracles. It's a work of faith.
Garden is for the spirit.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Saturday, April 4, 2015
What Heroes Leave Behind
On April 1, 2015, a hero passed on.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/article17187011.html
Les Williams was one of the few remaining Tuskegee Airmen. He achieved the rank of Captain in the first class of Black bomber pilots.
But that's not why he's my hero.
After WWII, Captain Les Williams overcame the remnants of racial prejudice in his home town of San Mateo, CA, to open a dance studio. He was my first tap-dance teacher. He was 45 years old when my twin sister and and I became his 5 year old students. I remember him as a patient, kind and smiling teacher.
In fact, I remember him so fondly as my first tap-dance teacher that I wasn't even aware he was a famed Tuskegee Airmen until a few years ago. I wanted to tell my students about my first hero. Knowing he was a famous dancer in the San Francisco Bay Area in my youth, I searched his name on the internet and was puzzled when references to Tuskegee Airmen kept popping up. Mr. Williams never marketed himself as a WWII and Civil Rights hero when advertising his dance studio. When I asked my father if he knew, he said he had no idea. He just saw a dance studio near his workplace and, probably because of the popular influence of his childhood neighbor, Shirley Temple, decided to enroll his young daughters for tap-dance classes.
I didn't dance again until high school, then taught dance in a small town in Nebraska as a young adult.
Since I have learned of Les Williams' rich life story, I have woven it into lessons I give as an Intermediate public school Librarian. When he and his daughter, Penny, wrote his autobiography, I purchased several copies and he was kind enough to autograph them for circulation in my school. At the beginning of this school year, I did a book review featuring his book, Victory. Several students, especially boys, asked about learning more about tap dancing. I recommended books from our library, then decided in the new year to offer a Tap Dance Club, even though I had not danced in over 30 years (I'm 55)! Happily, the skill returned quickly - it's kind of like riding a bike - and I think I'm having more fun than my students. About a dozen students joined. Some dropped out, but there are almost as many boys as girls learning the Stray Cat Strut. Three of the girls are learning so quickly that they want to perform at the school Talent Show in May.
Because of a Tuskegee Airman who invited me into the joys of tap dancing, I continue to tell his inspirational story and teach fancy footwork as I remember his impression on my life, hoping to inspire hundreds, even thousands of young students.
What do heroes leave behind? Gratitude.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/article17187011.html
Les Williams was one of the few remaining Tuskegee Airmen. He achieved the rank of Captain in the first class of Black bomber pilots.
But that's not why he's my hero.
After WWII, Captain Les Williams overcame the remnants of racial prejudice in his home town of San Mateo, CA, to open a dance studio. He was my first tap-dance teacher. He was 45 years old when my twin sister and and I became his 5 year old students. I remember him as a patient, kind and smiling teacher.
In fact, I remember him so fondly as my first tap-dance teacher that I wasn't even aware he was a famed Tuskegee Airmen until a few years ago. I wanted to tell my students about my first hero. Knowing he was a famous dancer in the San Francisco Bay Area in my youth, I searched his name on the internet and was puzzled when references to Tuskegee Airmen kept popping up. Mr. Williams never marketed himself as a WWII and Civil Rights hero when advertising his dance studio. When I asked my father if he knew, he said he had no idea. He just saw a dance studio near his workplace and, probably because of the popular influence of his childhood neighbor, Shirley Temple, decided to enroll his young daughters for tap-dance classes.
I didn't dance again until high school, then taught dance in a small town in Nebraska as a young adult.
Since I have learned of Les Williams' rich life story, I have woven it into lessons I give as an Intermediate public school Librarian. When he and his daughter, Penny, wrote his autobiography, I purchased several copies and he was kind enough to autograph them for circulation in my school. At the beginning of this school year, I did a book review featuring his book, Victory. Several students, especially boys, asked about learning more about tap dancing. I recommended books from our library, then decided in the new year to offer a Tap Dance Club, even though I had not danced in over 30 years (I'm 55)! Happily, the skill returned quickly - it's kind of like riding a bike - and I think I'm having more fun than my students. About a dozen students joined. Some dropped out, but there are almost as many boys as girls learning the Stray Cat Strut. Three of the girls are learning so quickly that they want to perform at the school Talent Show in May.
Because of a Tuskegee Airman who invited me into the joys of tap dancing, I continue to tell his inspirational story and teach fancy footwork as I remember his impression on my life, hoping to inspire hundreds, even thousands of young students.
What do heroes leave behind? Gratitude.
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