"They Don't Have to Justify Need"

A package came the other day with these seeds in it. Corne de Belier snow peas. Rouge d'Hiver lettuce. Danvers carrots. All heirlooms from the 1800s. Plus a variety of other heirloom seeds with equally impressive histories. These were sent to me, free, from Holly. This is what Holly does. Holly Hirshberg and her husband Sean run The Dinner Garden, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that gives free seeds, gardening supplies, and advice to anyone in the United States who wants them. Anyone. No questions asked. No qualifying. No cost, not even postage.

The Dinner Garden just celebrated its first anniversary. Since January, Holly, Sean and a small group of volunteers (including their two special needs children) have provided seeds to almost 12,000 families, including numerous community gardens, in 39 states.

I met Holly because of Pamela Price, who writes the blog Red, White and Grew. I met Pamela because of that Victory Garden Drive I tried to run a couple years ago, a concept that was also being rejuvenated by many others around the country and world, most famously, now, by Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International, who was instrumental through his Eat the View campaign in pursuading the White House to plant its organic vegetable garden, but also by Pamela and a historian and garden educator in California named Rose Hayden-Smith. Roger and Rose are actually going to the White House next week to bring the 110,000 signatures of the White House Garden petition to the White House chef to add to the compost pile. Pamela continues to write like mad out of San Antonio, Texas about Victory Gardens and more. And I am giving Holly's seeds to the six families from the food pantry who will be gardening in our new community garden.

So, this is how it works. We do things because we feel driven to do them. We meet people for reasons we don't know. We trust the journey. And then one day, bang, some pieces of it somehow, miraculously, come together. If I hadn't done the Victory Garden thing, I wouldn't have met Pamela. Holly. The seeds. The families. The garden. It all ties together.

I interviewed Holly last week about The Dinner Garden. This is not a little side volunteer project that Holly and Sean are doing. This is a full-time job for both of them. They rely on donations of money, seeds and supplies from individuals and companies, and again and again I heard Holly say about their recipients, "They don't have to justify need."

They don't have to justify need.

I kept thinking about this all week, while walking to and from school, while shoveling yet more mulch on yet more paths, while turning over some of my garden beds with the change of seasons, while riding my bike, while writing, while cooking, while standing there at the kitchen window washing dishes and watching hummingbirds, while realizing that 9/11 is coming once more, sure as the swallows return to Capistrano, in just a few more days (9/12/01 is the day when I started my garden) and my heart will get ripped from me yet again.

They don't have to justify need.

They don't have to justify.

And so I realize, I don't have to justify my actions. I don't have to justify my intentions. I don't have to justify my purpose or path or possibilities. I simply have to take the positive steps. Save the seeds. And pass them on.

I invite you to do this, too, figuratively, in the winding, twisty path that we call life. Trust that journey. And in the literal seeds that pass through your day. The seeds from that butternut squash in your CSA box. The heirloom tomato you buy at the farmers market. The beans you find hiding in your vines, too big to eat fresh. Dry them and put them in little plastic bags or glassine envelopes, mark them, and mail them to Holly and Sean at:

The Dinner Garden
P.O. Box 700686
San Antonio, Texas 78270-0686

I'm not going to worry about justifying anything anymore. No more questioning whether or not the steps I take matter. Holly and Sean and Roger and Rose and Pamela remind me to just do the actions. And trust.

"They Don't Have to Justify Need"