Life Lessons from Broccoli
by Lisa Kline

  This time, I asked an expert gardener about what happened, and he said I could start the plants indoors but each day I needed to take them out into the cold. This would make them hardy.

Through my gardening hobby, I've learned that sometimes we can learn lessons from nature. One time when I lived in Chicago, Illinois, I tried to start some broccoli plants indoors. I gathered my seeds, cups and soil and planted the seeds in the soil. I gave them plenty of water and placed them in a nice sunny spot in my kitchen window. Then I waited.

In a few days the plants had grown but they were tall, spindly and drooped. There was no way they could have produced broccoli. I couldn't understand why they had grown so strange when they had everything that I thought they needed.

I was determined to have a broccoli crop, so I tried again. This time, I asked an expert gardener about what happened, and he said I could start the plants indoors but each day I needed to take them out into the cold. This would make them hardy.

I planted the broccoli seeds again and took the plants outside in the cold each day and then brought them back inside. To my amazement they grew large and stout and later produced some great broccoli.

After my experience with the broccoli I thought how it related to life. If someone has everything -- no problems or trials, they don't develop properly. They are like my broccoli plants that did not develop strength because they were not exposed to cold conditions. The successful broccoli plants were the ones that withstood conditions that might have seemed hard on them, but they needed these adverse conditions to make them strong. This is just like people. We grow stronger as we weather the storms of life and endure adversity.

Lisa Kline may be contacted at http://homepages.msn.com/HobbyCt/glts/index.html glts@msn.com
Lisa Kline is school teacher, wife, and mother of two sons. Her hobbies include arts and crafts, home repair and gardening.

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