Antonio and I had a failure to communicate.
He spoke Spanish and very little English. I spoke English and freshman high school Spanish.
It was over 25 years ago, and Antonio came over to help me bring our untamed yard under control. He was the neighborhood expert gardener. I was a sales guy.
It took weeks for Antonio’s simple instruction to sink into my head. In broken English, he told me over and over, “You decide what is a weed and what is a flower. Pull, by the roots, what you see as a weed. Water and love what you see as a flower.”
Sherry and I look at our yard today. It has huge, flowering weeds, patches of real grass and funny looking blue and yellow flowers (maybe flowers). We love it all. It’s ours.
Reflecting back, I now realize Antonio’s gardening advice had broader application. In my life as a whole, if I had consistently pulled all my prickly weeds by the roots and generously watered the magnificent opportunities that came my way, my life’s landscape would be even more spectacular than it is today.