WHEN before tomatoes were just tomatoes -- green, red, overripe. Now, they are vegetables that can be regenerated as within each of them are hundreds of seeds. Indeed, it's a satori as Foreign Affairs Usec. Ernie Abella described it in reaction to my Facebook post on how fascinating it is that I now see tomatoes and bell peppers beyond just their being ingredients to my day's fare. Instead, I now look at them as sources of new life.
I called up the City Agriculturists' Office the day after it announced that it will be delivering seeds to you, all you need to do is call. I did. Someone got my name, my address and said that the seeds will be delivered the following day. I've been staying home for more than 30 days now, not a single seed arrived. But I have moved on from that broken promise as I now excitedly wait for my veggie deliveries and looking at each vegetable as possible seed or cutting source.
My bunch of alugbati, which I made into salad last week are now sprouting young leaves. The piece of ginger that had shrunk on the condiment basket after not having been used for two weeks since I bought some before the quarantine started is now a young shoot on the ground. I have several pots with squash seedlings from one slice of squash I bought two weeks ago. I never thought tending to plants could be this exciting.
It took a pandemic to bring these realizations. Because of the pandemic, we were forced to drop everything that has kept us busy for years and come to terms with ourselves.
Like many, it was a slow start. I admit wasting so many days doing nothing I can be proud of, until my conscience got the better of me and sent me to reflect on how I have allowed so much time to go to waste. As we're often reminded: Time is one resource we can never bring back. Money, we can make it again. Projects, we can embark on more, even better ones. But time? Once gone, it's gone forever.
It took a while before I could get back into the groove and start attacking work and making good use of time. Gardening is one such, and nothing is more satisfying. While looking forward to every new day to check on my seedlings, I'm excitedly waiting for the day to break as well so I can dry my bell pepper seeds. These on top of the daily miracles we are seeing as we do pranic healing on Covid-19 patients assigned to us to heal, life has never been this exciting, and yet it's all happening while quarantined all by myself at home.
Indeed, if we only look long enough into our heart's desires, we will come to realize that the trappings of travels and adventures that were necessary to stimulate us pre-Covid are nothing to the boost our souls get when we stop and explore inwards. saestremera@gmail.com