Black & White Wednesday ~ Seeds

"All of the flowers of all the tomorrows

are in the seeds of today."

Indian Proverb

Several years ago I stumbled across was led to a quote that profoundly altered my perspective on my day to day life. "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." It's a Robert Louis Stevenson quote that {quite literally} caused the ground to shift under my feet - that caused a dramatic paradigm shift in my life. Something in the simplicity of the sentiment set me free from pressures that come when we measure, compare and find satisfaction only in accomplishment. There's so  much a farmer can't control about the harvest. There's so much we can't control about the outcome, about the future. But we can plant seeds. Lots of them. Each and every day!

This spring has been slow to flower here in New England. But we all knew it was coming. Always does...eventually! And as the new buds open, and pollen spreads, and seeds dance across the breeze, we know that the flowers of next spring are coming to life as well!

It can be so hard to hold on to this idea. If we're building a family, or a business...if we're striving to make a big life style change...or if we're trying to mend fences and build bridges....whatever we are striving towards in life, it can be such a struggle to gaze with satisfaction on the planting. So difficult to be consistent with the watering while we wait for growth. For accomplishment. For the harvest.

There's a Bible passage that speaks to this, but that I believe I misinterpreted for years. In Corinthians it says that one man might plant a seed of faith, and others might water it, but it is God that makes it grow. For years I thought that if there wasn't growth in my faith, or certain "results" in my life that either God wasn't blessing me or that I wasn't planting or watering enough. Truth is, I think God really wants us to be free from all of that judgement! To let go of things we can't control, and invest in those things we can. To let go of the harvest and to plant freely. Plant seeds of faith, kindness, discipline or creativity,  take a deep breath and trust that the harvest will come in its own sweet time. A rich, beautiful, worth-the-wait harvest.

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