All the buried seeds

crack open in the dark

the instant they surrender

to a process they can’t see.

What a powerful lesson is the beginning of spring.  All around us, everything small and buried surrenders to a process that none of the buried parts can see.   And this innate surrender allows everything edible and fragrant to break ground into a life of light that we call spring.

In nature, we are quietly given countless models of how to give ourselves over to what appears dark and hopeless, but which ultimately is an awakening that is that is beyond all imagining.  This moving through the dark into blossom is the threshold to God.

As a seed buried in the earth cannot imagine itself as an orchid or hyacinth, neither can a heart packed with hurt imagine itself loved or at peace.  The courage of the seed is that once cracking it cracks all the way.

This is a walking meditation:

  •  Find and watch some buds barely breaking ground.
  •  Meditate on their unseen beginnings underground.
  •  Breathe slowly and let your breath draw whatever is budding in you to the surface of your life.

From “The Book of Awakening”  by Mark Nepo