In this community we have the opportunity to rent tiny garden spaces. I have two: one has Dick's roses, specially chosen for their fragrance, and other grows veggies. As it happened, I totally neglected the gardens for two months. I won't bother you with my excuses. I finally went to the garden place with a bit of dread. After all, this is southern California, a semi-desert that requires irrigation to produce anything green.

My veggies were kaput as expected except for a shoot from a tomato plant that actually had flowers and some tiny baby tomatoes. The roses looked terribly dejected and neglected. I felt really guilty. Then I noticed that the smallest of them had two buds about to bloom. The next day I cut them and named them Hope. They adorned my dining table for a week.