The pumpkins...

Each year our neighborhood friends get together and cut pumpkins at the end of October. Last year there was a bright orange, squat pumpkin that no one chose to cut. We saved it and baked half of it, and turned the other half into soup for our neighborhood Christmas dinner. I saved the seeds. Have you ever grown a plant from the seeds of something you have eaten? It feels oddly sneaky...like you got something for nothing!

This year, in the spring, I planted those seeds. I don't know if you have ever grown a pumpkin, but it is an experience everyone should try once. The seed germinates so quickly. The leaves were popping out of the ground in what felt like a few hours, but was really two or three days. Once the seedlings were large enough to transplant into the garden the vines took off in a race to see which could take up the most room the fastest. I feel like the writer of the Cinderella story must have been a grower of pumpkins, because the scene in the cartoon version is very much like a time lapse of what happened in my garden.

Each day I stepped out to check on them and would see how much they had grown. Soon the vines were sporting yellow balls that got more and more orange as the days passed. And sure enough, they turned into squat orange Cinderella pumpkins.

We've been having pumpkin soup now for a couple weeks straight.

Are you ever delighted by the quick growth of something in your life? Are there moments when things seem easier or better than you expected? Let's remember to celebrate these moments. They may not come often, but they are wonderful.