Life Lessons from My Watermelon Plants: Enjoying life’s delicious fruit and celebrating the tendrils that make it possible
This summer, I’ve enjoyed some time spent largely off the grid. I have loved spending time out in nature, making projects, and enjoying my backyard garden. I grew up gardening and have enjoyed watching things grow for as long as I can remember. There’s something refreshing and restorative about tending to plants as you patiently wait to enjoy the fruits of your labor. This year, I decided to try growing Sugar Baby watermelons for the first time. It has been a summer highlight. My family and friends look at me strangely as I talk to them and about them as if they’re little baby humans, growing and changing every day. While I was out watering and talking with my “babies” the other day, something struck me. I had been totally fixated on the fruit. Each day, I noticed how the fruit had grown, changed, and the shape it was taking. I admired it as it grew. I scanned the plant for new fruit and got so excited when another watermelon joined the family. It somehow validated my newly developing “watermelon mom” status and brought me great joy. Then, one morning, I noticed something that I had looked right past every morning before. I noticed the support system that was growing around each fruit. To conserve space in my raised beds, I decided to try a trellis system to let the watermelons grow up instead of spreading out on the ground. Everywhere a watermelon began to bloom and grow, there were little tentacle looking things that Google tells me are called tendrils. These little tendrils started out long and straight and then grabbed hold of the trellis and wrapped around it several times like a little curlicue. They were holding on tight and not budging. Upon further inspection, these strong and mighty little curlies appeared to be largely responsible for the vine and watermelon itself staying up on the trellis and having a chance to produce the desired fruit.
It struck me that I’m not all that different when I’m admiring my watermelon babies than I am in my day-to-day life. I get excited when things I’ve worked hard for become a reality. I love celebrating the “fruits” of my labor whether personally, professionally, relationally, or spiritually. I long for that sweet fruit. I strive for it. I get excited when it starts to grow. What I also tend to do in real life is forget to intentionally notice, remember, and be ever so thankful for the tendrils in my life. Like my watermelons, I don’t produce fruit without being tethered to a vine. For me personally, my faith is important to me. I believe that Jesus is the source that I am connected to that helps me grow and produce fruit, regardless of my own abilities or lack of abilities in many cases. John, one of Jesus’ best pals, records some of Jesus’ words to them. Jesus told them, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Even if faith is not important to you, I would guess there are many “tendrils” surrounding all the fruit in your life. Many times, they come in the form of beautiful relationships that help hold you up when things around you start to fall. Regardless of what your tendrils look like, take a second to notice them. When the fruit in my life does come, I hope and pray that I can enjoy and celebrate the sweetness and be incredibly grateful for the tendrils and the beautiful vine that made it possible. In the meantime, if you’re looking for me, you can find me out in my backyard, talking to my little babies and the plants that are producing beautiful fruit.
