On an Early Morning Walk - Seeds

On an Early Morning Walk
December 31, 2023

   

Late autumn seeds

draped and frosted

   await spring breezes.

“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain 

will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.”

~ William Shakespeare

After the Storm

A violent prairie storm 

whipped the city last night, 

branches bent ~ twisting away without hesitation.

Today, stunning sun calmed and dried it all ~ from branches, 

seed pods dried in clumps, 

await their turn to separate and fly.

“Our patience will achieve more than our force.”

~ Edmund Burke

Riches

Backing into the basics

of life where the land beckons, 

rooted within my soul

from ancestors far and near

turning over the soil of

yesterday and yesteryear,

new seeds are planted in 

soil old, yet rich with history.

“Let them look to the past, but let the also look to the future; 

let them look to the land of their ancestors, 

but let them look also to the land of their children.”

~ Wilfred Laurier

Offerings ~ 2

Polished and stark 

against the September sky

Graceful and clean, leaning 

into winds warning of winter

Standing tall above

red-gold leafy brush

At journey’s end from seed and soil

offering beauty to those that can see.

 

“There is no exquisite beauty…without some strangeness in proportion.”

~ Edgar Allan Poe

Seeding?

Seeding?

“Energy that hasn’t existed before?”

Uncle Thomas seemed confused and he didn’t even have white hair yet. My parents named me after him but everyone called me Tommy. When I grew up, I wanted to be called Thomas. I thought I was pretty grown up already because I would be seven years old on my birthday this month. But people keep asking me what I want to be ‘when I grew up?’ Don’t they know I want to be a farmer like Uncle Thomas, and I kind of am already. I guess I got pretty confused too about the energy thing so when I asked Uncle Thomas, the best farmer in the world, and he just asked me back I was worried. See, I was going to plant beans in the spring when it was time. The ones that climb on bean poles - I guess that’s why they call the poles ‘bean poles’ - and they have red flowers. But the beans I had for seeds looked dead. Like there was no growing kind of energy in them at all. I didn’t want to plant a bunch of dead seeds and be the worst farmer in the world when I was just starting out. Uncle Thomas gave me the bean seeds and a little patch of his garden for my farm! Well, I guess it’s not really a farm yet, but you have to start somewhere, you know. Uncle Thomas isn’t mean. So I decided to ask him the energy question that made his forehead wrinkle up. 

“Tommy, do you remember where those beans came from? Remember we talked about it last fall harvest. We talked about all kinds of seeds. Wheat, oats and beans and peas and all the things your aunt and I plant in our garden and in the fields.”

“Now, I remember! The plants get energy from the sun and the rain. Nitrogen and oxygen from the rain. And the sun……is the word photo….something?”

“You’ve got a pretty good memory, Tommy. The word you want is photosynthesis. All that energy goes into growing the plants and making the seeds so a new plant can grow in the next year.”

“But why do the seeds all look like they’re dead?”

“Well, they look dead but they are dormant. Being dormant is rather like keeping a secret or maybe sleeping. Their secret is that they are alive. When you’re sound asleep, you are still breathing and your heart is still beating. Sleep lets your energy build up at the end of a day. When seeds are dormant they are doing the same thing, except they can stay asleep for a long time. It’s up to us farmers to wake them up. With beans, we wake them up gently by soaking them in the house before putting them in the ground. But why all the questions about planting? Spring is too far off to get your garden growing.”

“I think every farmer should know this stuff and I didn’t want to wait until spring to ask. What if I forgot my question or you were already in the field and I couldn’t ask you? So I’m glad we had this talk now.”

“So am I. Let’s go out to the kitchen and work on my new jigsaw puzzle. Aunt Marg has some hot cocoa and cookies for us. When it’s not planting time but feels like it should be, it’s almost a sad thing. I think we could use just a little cheering up - don’t you?”

“Kids don’t remember what you teach them. They remember what you are.”

~ Jim Henson

From My Garden

Four green beans ~

lowly in the stature.

Sheltered by broad leaves.

Cornered and hidden.

Ripened past crispness yet

quietly gathering energy

for new growth in spring.

“We were planting seeds of change, the fruit of which 

we might never see. We had to be patient.”

~ Michelle Obama,  Becoming

A Risky Journey

A fresh new bean shoot

Always a risk

to climb higher each day,

vining around supports with

no knowledge

if a deer's razor sharp teeth will 

nip the steady climb toward sunshine,

no knowledge 

of cloud cover or wind

that may slow upward progress.

Taking a risk anyway ~

the only task for seeds

planted in moist, dark soil.

“A seed, after all, is an embryo, a potential plant waiting 

for its moment to grow. It has what it needs to begin. 

But it can also put itself on pause. It can wait.”

~ Robert Krulwich, journalist

Newness ~ 1

There is always a stirring when spring is just around the corner. Here in Victoria, snowdrops blooming and daffodils in bud remind me, just in case I may have forgotten. On the prairies, spring always felt much farther away with winter winds and snow, reminding me to just be patient. 

That stirring to plant, to get my fingernails deep in the dirt, to get out in the garden or fields is not a new feeling.  Wherever I have lived, once adjusted to the climate, I have felt it's depth, the longing to be part of the earth. For many of us, living on our own, in a suite, in the middle of a city, where patios and window sills are our only gardens, it can take a good bit of creativity to respond to the coming of spring. 

I’ve accepted a challenge to avoid buying anything new for this year. Of course, this must be tempered by good judgement. Spring time does put a bit of extra pressure on this ‘avoiding newness’ challenge. But for the sake of beauty and soul satisfaction, I was willing to use some good judgement. After all flower pots and patio containers need new seed, new plants and some, a bit of new soil. Starting with these little violas for my window sill, I have bought and brought some lovely newness into my home. 

The deer had a lovely munch on the bush outside the window!

Awakening to the newness of each day opens onto many possibilities. Granted, we don’t always jump out of bed with enthusiasm. As our eyes open, our feet feel each step, we are slowly able to reshape the morning to fit our our desires. For today, my stirring to plant was satisfied by these little violas for my window sill.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

Ode to Chaos

There will always be chaos

in a spot of each room

like wee plants rooted to grow.

For each bit of chaos

is seed for new things, 

exciting surprises you know

There was a time in this humble home

when chaos was totally banned ~

shunned as an unholy mess!

‘til out of the chaos came an idea

for the value of chaos to be seen

in creations of artistic ~ or dining ~ success

In our heads, in our hearts

where chaos floats free

our thoughts sadly tangled with woe

let the seeds of this mess

settle and rest

creating peace and ease in our soul.

“There was beauty in chaos, she’d just never known it before.”

~ Amanda Linsmeier, Beach Glass & Other Broken Things

Survivors ~1

In the midst of survivors

I feel like a leaf on a magnificent tree that sheds its leaves each year

 ~ brilliant leaves shorn by wild winds, 

crumpling underfoot with each passerby,

soaked and moulding through cold rain or snow,

cycling through seasons flowing through time

and yet

it is not the leaves that survive

but the very tree or shrub that creates them

branching out over sidewalks and roads

standing tall in the wildest of winds

sheltering all of the lives in and around them

standing alone or within community

roots running deep tapping into the earth or

spreading and mingling with others below the earth

focusing each moment on each seed planted.

“It’s not the strongest or most intelligent who will survive

 but those who can best manage change.

~ Leon C. Megginson

Author's note: Edited February 18, 2024

Autumn's Joy

Bright soft petals
melting in autumn sunshine
open their seed to the sky ~
Spontaneous joy of nature.

Autumn….the year’s last, loveliest smile.”

~ William Cullen Bryant

Free Fall

Respect the power of noise outside
 When the noise inside grows
  Louder and more insistent
   Shaking your very being inside and out.

Move away from the outside noise
 Move into quiet and stillness
  Time to give mind and heart space to settle
    To grow quiet once more

Like a seed floating down from a gnarled old tree
 To be planted
   To root and 
     To grow

“Peace of mind arrives the moment you come to 

peace with the contents of your mind.”

~ Rasheed Ogunlaru

Book Review: The Triumph of Seeds; How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History by Thor Hanson

Seeds are all around us. Falling from trees, hanging in pods from bushes, bags and barrels of coffee beans, and floating in the air like tiny umbrellas from a dandelion. I could fill this page with so many more examples, but I’m confidant that you can look around your home, your office or just outside and see either seeds, or a tree or a plant that has come from a seed, even the oil in your car. Thor Hanson has written a whole book about seeds. Writing that is charming, humourous and historical. From jungles to farms to grocery stores and clothing. Seeds that airplanes are modeled after. The animals and birds that disperse seeds throughout the globe. Personally I recalled much about my dad and the wheat and flax that he grew, the care that was taken of the seeds of grain throughout each crop year. Thor Hanson talked of the vast seed banks throughout the world. I recalled the personal ‘seed bank’ samples that dad kept in his office from each years yield of grain. Thor Hanson talked of seeds that are poisonous and seeds that are medicinal and how they were developed.

To say I enjoyed this book would be an understatement. It’s one I’ll keep in my bookshelf as a resource and a thoroughly enjoyable read. Discussion this afternoon at Book Group was wide ranging and interesting as we followed Thor Hanson through the history and The Triumph of Seeds.

“Without the act and anticipation of plantng and harvest, there could be 

no agriculture as we know it, and our species would still be wanderng in 

small bands of hunters, gatherers, and herdsmen. Indeed, some experts believe that Homo sapiens might never 

have evolved at all in a world that lacked seeds.”

~ Thor Hanson, 

The Triumph of Seeds; How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses and Pips 

Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History

Title:  The Triumph of Seeds

Author:  Thor Hanson
Publisher: Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Publication Date: 2015
ISBN: 978-0-465-05599-9 (hc.: alk.paper)
ISBN: 978-0-465-04872-4 (e-book)
Type:  Non-Fiction

The Seeds of my Discontent.....

...like flakes of brown chaff are tossed into unpredictable winds.

Small brown seeds falling

on moist soil around me

disappearing

becoming part of a landscape 

drawn in pebbles and greenery.

Seeds of annoyance and resentment distort into compost by the weight of my life.

Other scratchy emotions struggle to grow, but ungainly and sparse with inattention may die young and very timely deaths.

And then there are those grand resentments,

supported on prickly stems and branches, that 

if nurtured and tended by word or deed,

will flower and spread their seed far and wide.

Should I allow annoyance or resentment

to hold sway?

to determine my life’s course?

I think not.

The seeds of my discontent,

when backlit by my values,

can yield much healthier decisions.

“It’s not hard to make decisions when

you know what your values are.”

~ Roy Disney