The lettuce seedlings jostle for space – leaves pushing up against each other like too many kids in the backseat of my car. I hate thinning the seedlings: plucking out life that looks so green and healthy. But I know that otherwise the plants will be stunted and weak.

A nearby row of beets, meanwhile, is sparsely planted. Most of the seeds failed to germinate, and the long trail of empty black potting soil on the neatly shaped raised row smacks of wasted opportunity.

Such it seems are the gardens of our lives!

May we learn to sow and thin until the rhythm of aspiring sprouts and fertile spaces produces food for a hungry world.