My beloved yoga instructor, Sara Goff, has been talking about the transformation that comes about in spring. She's used some Thoreau quotes--“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” and “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” She's challenged us to move away from the romanticism of spring and focus on the energy and hard work that goes into a seed transforming into a plant, a tree, food and a forest. She also asked us to "plant seeds of intention" during our practice.
All of this got me thinking about transformations. I've written about them previously here, The Boy or the Bunny and here Before and After. As I was pondering the thought of seeds of intention and the energy it takes to bring them to fruition, I also thought of the transformation through which they go. Sara said that a farmer doesn't plant corn and then stand over every seed saying "corn, corn, corn." But I had an image that a farmer plants a corn seed that looks like this corn seed.
And then a plant grows that looks like this. What sprouts from the seed and the fertile ground looks nothing like the "seed of intention" we planted. But if we let it go through its season, it will produce a thousand times the intention that we planted. But too often, we don't trust, we get fearful, it doesn't look anything like what we planted so we think we need to dig it up, to stop caring for it, to find another seed. NO! Often times, what sprouts from our intentions or prayers looks very different than what we thought we planted. The periods of most vigorous growth can look very different than the outcome we intended. Seriously, trust me on this one. But if we trust in our power, the goodness of the universe or God (or whatever your belief system is), what grows from that intention will be thousands of times greater than the small intention we planted.
That has been my path through my disease and recovery, my before and after. Plant your seed of intention, fertilize your soil, and trust in the transformation.
