by Chadwick Elliott

Created on: August 26, 2008   Last Updated: April 10, 2010

As the sun rises on a hot and humid Saturday in Mississippi, I watched my mother through the dew remaining on the window. She was always a dilegent worker when it came to her garden, and there where never any weeds to choke her plants. Her plants always had a clear and open space to grow as bountiful as they pleased. The tomatoes that she was growing were the most red plump tomatoes I had ever seen. There was always so much care put into this garden. She took a break from weeding her garden and saw me pressing my lips against the window, and blowing up my cheeks like a blowfish. I was caught and just watched my mother laughed as she motioned for me to come outside.

I put on my flip-flops and exited through the back door. I ran over to see her just to see if I could make her laugh again. She looked at me and called me her little sweet potato, and went back to weeding the garden teaching me along the way. We took a break and my mother picked some of the ripe red tomatoes and put it in her wicker basket to take inside for lunch. On Saturdays when the tomatoes were ripe enough my mother would always make the best tomato sandwiches. She brought the sandwiches with some lemonade and we just sat outside as the sun was starting to get higher in the sky. Again I tried to make my mother laugh by shoving my sandwich in my mouth. Although she was stern in telling me I should have some manners, I could see her cracking a smile. Before the day was too hot we moved inside to relax after our hard work.

As I look back on these Saturdays of picking weeds with my mother, only now do I realize the lessons she was teaching. She wasn't telling me how to weed a garden, but she was teaching me how to be a man. It might seem far fetched, but giving a child ample space to grow without the weeds of this world choking out his dreams is the best lesson she could have taught me. With a wide open space and a healthy relationship with its gardener a child can grow into the most fruitful plant that a parent could ever hope for. By teaching me about her garden my mother taught me about life. I am her sweet potato and the care she put into her garden ensured me to becoming the man I am today.

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