Shown up by a Tomato!
I spend a great deal of time on the freeway. Which goes without saying because I live in Los Angeles. One day last summer, as I inched along toward home, I was reminded of how I was once encouraged on the 405 by a tomato plant. I may have told some of you this story before, AAMI students have heard it a couple of times....but here it is again, just in case.
The first time I saw it I thought I was hallucinating. If you knew the 405 you would know that it is not that unusual see things you don’t believe, but there it was — a big ole’ tomato plant. In a tiny crack, literally under the edge of a huge concrete divider, in the middle of 10 lanes of highway, in the blistering heat, on the 405!!!!!!!! How anything could live on the 405 is beyond me. I hate the 405. No, hate is not quite strong enough. I detest the 405. I will drive miles out of my way to avoid the 405.
But this tomato seed evidently had no choice. If it was going to be, it had to be there....right on the 405. (Boy, this tomato plant took Dr. Schuller’s advice to heart....it not only “bloomed where it was planted”...it had 3 big green tomatoes on it!)
Can you imagine the chances of survival in that environment and what an incredible series of events must have taken place to make that possible? I am guessing someone threw out a sandwich with a bit of tomato on it. A seed from that tomato landed in a crack that had enough dirt in it to support a root system in the middle of a desert of pavement and hot air from cars passing by 24-7! No water other than the occasional summer rain! How did it survive all those odds???????
It was not a hallucination; it was there next time I made that drive. Tomatoes were still green. There is no tomato on earth worth stopping on the 405 for..but when the tomatoes were gone the next time I drove by, I had to wonder if they had ripened since I was there and someone had done just that!
And I also wondered if anyone else who had seen that tomato plant on the 405 was reminded by a tomato plant on the freeway that we can overcome and even reach far beyond seemingly impossible circumstances.....
So the next time you think you cannot complete some major life goal, think about that tomato plant on the 405 who didn’t know she had any other choice but accomplish her purpose! No excuses, no comparisons.....no complaining....just growing tomatoes.............on the 405.......in the middle of summer........in hundred degree plus weather!
Wow.....I am shown up all the time by that tenacious tomato! I continually give up on projects and dreams in far less dire circumstances than having to survive in the middle of the 405.
I think I will get a plastic tomato from the 99 cent store
The first time I saw it I thought I was hallucinating. If you knew the 405 you would know that it is not that unusual see things you don’t believe, but there it was — a big ole’ tomato plant. In a tiny crack, literally under the edge of a huge concrete divider, in the middle of 10 lanes of highway, in the blistering heat, on the 405!!!!!!!! How anything could live on the 405 is beyond me. I hate the 405. No, hate is not quite strong enough. I detest the 405. I will drive miles out of my way to avoid the 405.
But this tomato seed evidently had no choice. If it was going to be, it had to be there....right on the 405. (Boy, this tomato plant took Dr. Schuller’s advice to heart....it not only “bloomed where it was planted”...it had 3 big green tomatoes on it!)
Can you imagine the chances of survival in that environment and what an incredible series of events must have taken place to make that possible? I am guessing someone threw out a sandwich with a bit of tomato on it. A seed from that tomato landed in a crack that had enough dirt in it to support a root system in the middle of a desert of pavement and hot air from cars passing by 24-7! No water other than the occasional summer rain! How did it survive all those odds???????
It was not a hallucination; it was there next time I made that drive. Tomatoes were still green. There is no tomato on earth worth stopping on the 405 for..but when the tomatoes were gone the next time I drove by, I had to wonder if they had ripened since I was there and someone had done just that!
And I also wondered if anyone else who had seen that tomato plant on the 405 was reminded by a tomato plant on the freeway that we can overcome and even reach far beyond seemingly impossible circumstances.....
So the next time you think you cannot complete some major life goal, think about that tomato plant on the 405 who didn’t know she had any other choice but accomplish her purpose! No excuses, no comparisons.....no complaining....just growing tomatoes.............on the 405.......in the middle of summer........in hundred degree plus weather!
Wow.....I am shown up all the time by that tenacious tomato! I continually give up on projects and dreams in far less dire circumstances than having to survive in the middle of the 405.
I think I will get a plastic tomato from the 99 cent store
to remind me of what I learned from a tomato.
Maybe you should get one, too!
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