Planting the Seeds of Growth

Yes, it’s almost Spring! Currently, I’m looking out an open window, watching the birds, enjoying the breeze, and loving the sunshine. It’s been one year since the pandemic hit, but days like today help me put that aside to instead focus on new beginnings, opportunity and growth. Which leads me to ponder, what is it that I want to grow? What seed am I ready to plant, care for, and nurture? As my teacher, Yogi Amrit Desai, recently said,” What you want in the end you must have in the beginning.” But what does that really mean?

Using the most basic, literal interpretation, we recognize that planting a tomato seed now, along with water, sunshine, fertilizer, and a little TLC results in the growth of an actual tomato later. In the beginning, we have the tomato seed, and in the end, we have the tomato. Now, let’s say we don’t like tomatoes, we prefer zucchini, but all we have are tomato seeds. It doesn’t matter how much sun and water it gets, or if we use the best fertilizer, or even how much we dote on it, that tomato seed is not going to grow into a zucchini. And we know this! Silly, right? You would think so, but most of us don’t realize we are regularly planting the seeds of what we don’t want in our lives.

We say, “I want peace”, and then we hop onto our Facebook page and rant about the opposing political party. Or “I want everyone to be kind” as we go out and grab the last three packs of toilet paper at the store. How about, “what the world needs now is Love sweet Love“. Yeah? Well, how does that show up for us in traffic?

Do you see what I mean? Many of us say we want something beautiful in our lives and then we go out and plant seeds of anger, division, and selfishness. We say we want a zucchini, but what we’re planting are tomatoes. What you want in the end, you must have in the beginning.

We are only humans getting through this life experience as best as we can. And yes, this past year has been one heck of a life experience that no one among us wants to live again. Now the invitation here is to sit up and take notice: what is growing in my garden? What seeds have I been planting? Maybe it’s time to sow the seeds of what I truly want (and deserve!) in my life. The day is bright, the breeze is light, ENJOY!!

As a personal disclaimer, please take note that both zucchini AND tomatoes are welcome on my plate!