My children have grown tomatoes.
For many people, this is an ordinary thing. But I have never grown anything edible in my entire life, and now my children have successfully brought edible food into the world from a seed in a packet. They dug the garden, they planted the seeds, they watered and nurtured. And then they ate the absolutely delicious fruits of their labor.
I am so very glad they did it. The lesson isn’t about gardening (although that’s great). The lesson is that we have the power to put things into the world that were not there before. We are not passive participants in a life that carries but does not include us. We lay our own path, brick by brick, unless we yield that power.
Don’t. Use your own hands, and your own feet, and your own brains. Use your own eyes and your own heart. Grow your tomatoes because it is good to remember that you can.
The Opportunity Machine 