Planting Seeds

Annual Village Fair: August 19th. Join us for a day of fun in the Village and with the Community. Volunteer with us. If you are a crafter or artist or have something to share, we offer vendor tables (reach out for more information).

There are seeds being planted and sown all around us.  Sometimes the seed planting is so small we barely notice that there is a garden.  We’re so distracted by the BIG things, we don’t see the beautiful small things.  

When we read the Wisdom Words, we’re often rushing and not letting them wash over us.  It’s easy to read them and think: oh, yeah, that’s other people and not me.  When we feel that inkling of oh wait, that might be me, we quickly move on, because it could open a kettle of worms we don’t really want to open.  It could take time and work.  It could open us to pain or grief.   

We like to think that even when we’re not quite on the path, it’s good enough.  And those other people…they are really off the path, so we’re not doing so bad after all.  

Sometimes, that’s what we learn from the parables.  There are people worse and worse off than we are.  We keep trudging on in our lives doing good enough.  

Is Jesus really asking us in this parable to look at what other people are doing?  Is Jesus really asking us to look at where other people are off the path?  Is it really a warning for other people?  Is Jesus really asking us to point fingers even in a small, subtle, innocent, not-meaning-to-do-harm kind of ways?  

Probably not.  It’s probably a warning for each and every one of us.  Not to look outward, but to look within.  

We all have our weaknesses and tendencies.  We all have the ways we are likely to “miss the mark”.  We’re human.  This parable nicely points out the common tendencies we all have.  The key is to look honestly at who we are in the story.  Or, maybe not who we are, but where we are likely to trip up.  Especially under stress and challenge, in pain and anger and frustration.  Those times when life is so hard and it doesn’t seem fair!!  When it’s most hard to trust and have faith.  It’s likely we’ve all been there.  And it’s okay. It’s okay.  

When we trip up and fall, we can be picked up once again.  

There are seeds being planted everywhere.  There are seed planters and sowers everywhere.  There are scatterers everywhere.  And we’re kind of busy.  What seeds do we notice and take in?  When was the last time we stopped and smelled the roses (this is a place I like to think of as that place where the soul can catch up)?  Sometimes, we’re so busy rushing through life that we don’t even notice the seeds for what they are.  We’re so busy noticing the rocks that we don’t see the blossoms growing in the cracks.  

We don’t see the seed to be taken in and cherished and nourished.  Watered and given sunlight.  We don’t see what’s precious all around us.  We don’t see that seeds aren’t meant just to be noticed and passed by, but nurtured and loved.  These seeds need to be pondered, explored, reflected on, even practiced to come fully into fruition in our lives.  

When seeds land we must first notice them as precious things.  Peace. Love.  Kindness.  Joy.  Connection.  Precious seeds that are seemingly so hard to take in and plant and root in our lives.  

Why?  They sound so very easy and yet it’s not easy at all.

Perhaps because the greatest things take work, time, and attention.  Something we feel we don’t have enough of.  But there is always plenty of time for what matters.  Always.  Notice how when we’re needed for something that is one of those precious things…nothing else falls apart and sometimes, it seems as if time makes space for us to do what really matters.  

It’s true.  

We can cultivate our own soil.  There is actually a theory of this in caring for the physical body.  What kind of soil is this physical body, so when “seeds” land they are more likely to take root toward healthy and well or toward illness and disease.  And of course, there are always some curve balls.   It’s the same for our spiritual “body”.  What kind of land are we for the seeds of Wisdom?  

Are we so busy the seeds just fall all around us and we keep going?  Do we even notice the treasure trove of seeds all around us?  

One of the scariest things is opening the door to the things we resist seeing in ourselves.  PAUSE. Often it is through the scariest things that we grow and become the best versions of ourselves in this world.  Knowing our weaknesses and tendencies guides us in the direction of where we need support and where we might stumble and fall.  Where we need to watch our step, so that we might become the person God knows we are.  

Trust.  Listen.  There’s a little bit of each of us in each of these soils.  

Sometimes we are trampled ground.  We’re caught up in our own worlds.  Maybe it’s pain or anger or overburdened with work or our own suffering that we are not open to seeing what’s new and Good.  We don’t notice the seeds of preciousness or understand it when it does come.  We’re lost in the tramplings of division and anger and hatred. We follow the road and don’t look to the edges where the seeds of love and wisdom often grow. We’re doing what everyone else is doing and miss the smaller seeds of everyday kindnesses.  We’ve become so lost in the trials of life and the unfairness of it all that we don’t even see when Goodness comes our way.  We can’t take it in.  We just keep on walking.  Following the road, but lost and oblivious.  

Or perhaps we’re rocky ground.  We’re busy and anxious.  We feel unstable.  We notice the seeds of Wisdom and we get so excited for them.  They bring us such happiness and we cling to them.  We hold tight to this lifeline.  But then, we’re disturbed by something.  We’re distracted by something that destabilizes us.  Something unfair and “wrong”.  Why me?  It’s gone.  Fleeting.  There were no roots to hold it.  No roots to hold that happiness long enough for it to become something bigger and more precious. Like Joy perhaps…  

There are so many wonderfully distracting things in this world.  So many tangible things to enjoy and fill our lives with.  There’s that new thing.  There’s that fun thing.  There’s money and power.  There’s being noticed by people and feeling special and important.  And within all of that is the beauty of these wonderful seeds of wisdom too!!!  We want it all.  We think we can have it all and do it all.  There’s so many things with thorns.  We think they are good things, but then they get in the way of what really matters.  We become more impressed with ourselves and this world.  We’re not able to choose and we try to have it all.  The thorns begin to overwhelm and choke out the beautiful seeds one another and of Grace.  

What is most important?  What kind of souls are we cultivating.  Soil.  Soul.  

Of course, we have times when we are lost and don’t hear.  Of course, we have times when we’re so guarded that when we hear wise seeds we try to hold onto them, but then sink under again.  Of course, we want it all and we try to fill our gardens with all the wonderful things, until we learn that some of those wonderful things come with thorns.  

We must tend the Garden of our Soul.  To tend the garden of our soul, we first must notice what’s in our garden that needs tending.  Rocks?  Trampled ground? Thorns?  Not enough compost?  Tending the garden means looking for where we’re in need of “work” and then tending to that work.  Opening our eyes to see and our ears to hear.  AND having a place for the seeds to land and take root.  

That takes time and tenderness.  Quiet.  Stillness.  Prayer.  Reflection.  Honest inquiry.  Sabbath.  We each know what we need most to create time to see deeply and space to listen deeply.  

When we have deep and fertile soil (souls), it grows and spreads like seeds taking wind to scatter and bring Goodness to those around us.  Ripple effects.  Seeds planted.  Seeds shared and ready to be planted, tended, and harvested by us and by more than just us.  

It’s okay to dive in and explore.  God already knows us.  PAUSE.  Perhaps, we need to trust enough to get to know ourselves.  Love ourselves enough to dig into the soil and see what’s there.  Love enough to tend the soil for Grace to take roots.  Love the world enough to harvest seeds to spread and share and let take wind.  Tending to what really matters to make space in our souls (soils) for the seeds of Wisdom.