Planting a Seed

Seedling — Ben Kwok

An image of a woman desperately waiting for her loved one who never shows up. She’s been waiting so long that she became grounded and will never connect with her soul mate. Sometimes we never fulfill our heart’s desire.

Practice non-action.
Work without doing.
Taste the tasteless.
Magnify the small, increase the few.
Reward the bitterness with care.

See significance in the complicated.
Achieve greatness in little things.

In the universe the difficult things are done as if they are easy.
In the universe great acts are made up of small deeds.
The sage does not attempt anything very big,
And thus achieves greatness.

Easy promises make for little trust.
Taking things lightly results in great difficulty.
Because the sage always confronts difficulties,
He never experiences them.

Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu – chapter 63

Time to stop digging up the seedlings and let the new life grow. What seeds are you planting, and are you giving them the space they need, the nourishment they need, the water?

I asked for seeds yesterday at the hardware store, and they had none in yet — but here in San Diego, it is time to start our seedlings. I’ll get them elsewhere today, or use the ones I already have in storage. I’m trying more and more to use what I already have instead of buying something new. In my garden, some seedlings are coming up all by themselves — tomatoes especially. They come up in random places, sometimes they have to be carefully moved. Sometimes there are weed seedlings that have to be dealt with. Are you maintaining your gardens, letting the new life grow, carefully weeding out those weed seeds, those nagging thoughts that are only distracting and not beneficial?

Reward the bitterness with care…

My petty little jealousies and envies must go. My little annoyances and irritations — they need to go, too. Those little seedlings of creativity, those little thoughts of what I might do, could do, those small steps that need to be taken — ah, those have to be nurtured and encouraged, watered and cared for, given the space and time they need to grow now. I can’t keep crushing them, or drowning them, or burying them. Space, sunlight, room, pure water, good nourishment — these are the things I need right now.

I’m seeing lots of these woman/nature/tree images lately — the Wyeth piece, on Leah’s blog, as she creates new artwork, and in other places. Perhaps it is the hint of spring bringing these images up. I have a dryad piece I did a few years ago, haven’t dug it out lately but I might. And other images forming in my mind, too. What will come of them? We’ll see. Do me a favor and please add your links to these kinds of images in the comments if you see them. (They may not post right away as comments sometimes get moderated if there are links in them).

Who knows, maybe somewhere along the way I will fulfill my heart’s desire.