Just some random thoughts...
I have always had a bit of a penchant for making my own food. Sure, I love restaurant food as much as anyone else; and though while it tasted mighty fine, it always had this "manufactured" vibe for me. Probably has a lot to do with me being the 80's equivalent of a hippy. Back then is when my "enlightenment" started.
When I did my first grow, and harvested the results, some 30 years later, all of that came back -- in spades. I had grown other things before, for sure.. but there was something about that relationship with the lady Mary Jane that made it much more personal for me. I find myself tending to these things as I would to newborn infants.
Doing so afforded me some real motivation to understand just how this miraculous plant does what it does. Learning that, in turn, graduated my reality into a much broader appreciation of the life around us, and our inextricable link to it all.