We have been friends together in sunshine and in shade
Caroline Norton
Yesterday, I had coffee with a wonderful young woman 
who admitted that she is stubborn
Stubborn enough to believe that the vegetable patch she planted under a shade tree
is going to produce a bumper crop.
Period.
I can see her gently tapping her foot
and having a conversation with the beans and the tomatoes
who nod their leaves and keep reaching for the sun as she cheers them on
But I wonder if she realizes that this shady place
is a metaphor for her life
Because when she is not trying to coax plants to rise above the geography of their lives
she is doing the same with people
She works with kids who are struggling to grow in the shade of poverty
and the shadow of the inner city
And she and her fellow laborers
in that field are just as stubborn about that
The sun is not always going to shine on our dream
or our plan
or even our prayer
But that doesn’t mean that we should give up
trying
to help it grow
And that’s poetiquejustis
