plant

Grandmother pressed the seed into my palm, whispering verses from Thiruppavai like prayers. "This is how Swami Paramarthananda taught me," she said softly. "Plant intention, nurture devotion." I nearly discarded it—beware of false hope, my pragmatic heart warned. Yet something shifted. I planted it anyway, balanced between skepticism and faith. PaybookClub friends thought I'd lost myself, falling in love with gardening, with tradition. But watching green shoots emerge, I understood. My grandmother wasn't selling spirituality; she was sharing roots. Now I tend this garden as she tended mine. Through this soil, our lineage lives.