Produce for nothing, and your kicks for free.

It's rare in life that we get something for nothing.

Two years ago, my son was out mowing the lawn. I was also out in the backyard playing with my daughter, and when the mower stopped, I figured it had run out of gas. But there was a brief pause before my son called, "Mom? Am I supposed to mow over these things?"

 Well then.

I joined him by the side of the compost bin, where he stood staring at the ground, and was shocked to find two cantaloupes tucked away in the unmowed, overgrown grass. Seeds scattered from the composted remains of an on-sale cantaloupe must've made their way outside the compost bin and taken root in the fertile ground there. Since my son wasn't exactly an enthusiastic lawn mower, the melons had grown, undisturbed and unnoticed, for quite some time. They weren't ready to be eaten quite yet, but I answered my son's questions with an resounding, "NO! Holy crap, we're growing compostaloupes!"

We ended up with four surprise compostaloupes, juicy and sweet and kind of amazing for something we didn't plant, didn't water, didn't tend to in any way. As I'm not a huge cantaloupe fan, my husband and children enjoyed them, while I enjoyed that they were nourished by something that appeared out of nowhere. Hurray for free food!

So.

You know where this is going, right?

Two nights ago, I was mowing the lawn. (I've since taken over the job; the last time my son mowed, it set his allergies off in a bad way, and as it turns out, I'm really great at mowing. Our lawn looks fantastic!) It was a pleasant evening, cool and sunny, and I'd been enjoying the task at hand. I had finally begun the home stretch, circling the mower back by the compost pile, when I began reminiscing about those compostaloupes from two years ago. 'Haha,' I thought to myself as I pushed the mower closer to the compost bin. 'Remember those compostaloupes? That was so funny. Wouldn't it be funny if we were growing something agai-'

Well then. Again.

And there we were, yet again. 

Not compostaloupes this year.

Compostomatoes.

Two of them, in fact, and each plant already has several flowers.

I continued to mow, careful not to disturb my new little friends, laughing the whole time. 

It's not often that we get something for nothing. Sometimes, we don't even get something for something; often, hard work goes unnoticed and unappreciated. But on occasion, every once in a while, we get a gift that we didn't have to work for, a tiny reminder of the goodness of life, small and green and perfect.

May your day be full of compostaloupes and compostomatoes.