This past week, a friend moved to another job and new, exciting opportunities. While I'm thrilled and hope all the best for her, I will miss her and am sad. I wanted to give my friend a gift, a symbol of my love for her and a reminder of our time together. I tried to think of something meaningful, useful, relevant, and lovely. I tried to think of something beautiful, delicious and unique... I thought and thought about a gift and then it struck me; a plant! Of course! A beautiful, delicious, unique, meaningful, useful, relevant, and lovely jalapeño plant! I happened to have several jalapeño plants which I grew from seeds. A few of them had delicate flowers promising fruit, and some of them had little peppers striving to grow into zesty little snacks. It occurred to me that there is something very personal about taking a tiny seed, planting it, watering it, caring for it, watching it grow, seeing it become the plant it was meant to be, and then giving it as a gift to someone you care about. I hope she loves that little jalapeño and I hope she knows I gave a little piece of my heart to her when I transplanted it and handed it over to her to love and enjoy for years to come.
