Exciting and new

Each morning since beginning my experiment, I've rushed to the bookshelf (or, as I've taken to calling it of late, the ICU) upon which my plants sit to check their progress. Sadly, the transplanted ones continue their march toward death. Weep for them.

On a whim the night this all began, I stuck a few marigold seeds in some soil just to see what would happen. Well, yesterday, while bemoaning the seemingly inevitable loss of two plants and wondering why I'd embarked on this adventure in the first place, I happened to look down at the smaller pot containing the seeds. What did I behold? Signs of life! A thin but vibrant green stalk is shooting up from the soil. I don't know whether it will make it past this stage, but the sight of it cheers me immensely.

I'm sure there's a metaphor in here somewhere, if I were the type to draw metaphors, which I am. Maybe it's best to let the past die a natural death and instead embrace the unfamiliar, something that may have a little dirt on its collar but whose very existence makes me smile and whose vitality makes me tingle.