Dear Daughters: Teary-Eyed

Dear Daughters,

I have been crying at the drop of a hat lately.

Point in fact-

This afternoon as I walked through my newly named Esperanza (hope) garden and rounded the Anacahuita tree I planted last summer (Wild Olive tree),

I saw these-

and I was UNDONE.

Baby tomatoes-

hatched in my new raised beds.

I should have given them more credit-

I should have given myself more credit.

I planted them and fertilized them and watered them- not in their faces because who likes that- but slowly and consistently at ground level making sure I didn’t disturb their growing.

And so I stood there and cried.

And I said thank you God for this gift and finally maybe I have something that I want to write. 

All that because I was teary-eyed and God thought enough already.

I stood at my beds and I cried and laughed thinking about the concrete owl my daughter brought

me from the flea market and about this discussion with my father earlier this week, as he stood at

the foot of my tomato beds.


I was very quiet waiting to hear what he had to say.


My father:        ”Sister? These sure are pretty.”

Me:                   “Thank you Daddy.”

My father:         Clearing his throat, “I think your tomato cages are upside down.”



And so dear daughters, I thought I’d have a little fun and tease him and make Nonnie (my mother)

smile up in heaven, and I said- as she probably said many times to him,

”I don’t believe they are.”