While my wife and I were getting excited about our vegetables, we were faced with a small disappointment this morning.

Our very first zucchini had become detached from the plant.

When we found it, a snail had already started eating it.

Not exactly the harvest we had been looking forward to.

We stood there wondering what had happened.

Had a bird pulled it loose?

Did the heavy rain damage the stem?

Or had something else happened while we weren’t looking?

We simply didn’t know.

That seems to be part of growing vegetables organically.

Nature doesn’t always explain itself.

Sometimes things thrive.

Sometimes they don’t.

The experience immediately made me think about what we could do differently next time.

Should we support the growing vegetables?

Protect them better?

Watch them more closely?

Every small setback makes me curious rather than discouraged.

Every season teaches something new.

Perhaps that is what gardening really is.

Not simply growing vegetables.

But slowly learning how nature works.