Have you Ever Planted Seeds in A Garden?

If you plant seeds, do you dig deep in the soil and create a deep well?

Did you dig your hands deeper and deeper in the earth until the seeds found their healthy home?

When you plant new seeds, you heave up the earth. Then, once the seeds are planted in the ground, you smooth out the soil, water and wait for the intelligence of nature to take flight. You may pick the weeds when they appear, and make sure your plant doesn’t have any parasites hanging on to its roots.

There’s Growing Unrest in the World

The unrest has always been here. The difference is that there are people questioning and becoming more aware that we created borders, countries and laws. Instead of being outraged, what can we do? What happens when we tap into our power not with more anger and fear but with an understanding that we don’t need more talk around the problems we created, but to imagine and create healthier systems.

There’s growing awareness that wars do not happen on their own; they are created by those supporting division and drawing battle lines in the world and even the boardroom. Instead of feeling hopeless, we can begin to consider what needs to stay (healthy) and what needs to go (toxic). Being more true to ourselves, freeing ourselves, and spending our energy engaged in creation that make us feel healthy to be alive brings us back in alignment.

Plant Healthy Seeds

Over the next five years, antiquated patterns that have been accepted — like “this is just the way things are done here” — will come into question as we dig deeper and deeper into our very being.

More and more people are starting to plant healthy seeds in individual and collective gardens. But to do so, we are digging deep in the dirt and weeding out the toxicity — be it beliefs, people and food.

Spending Time with Nature increases our awareness that everything is alive, until it’s not. Natural cycles teach us everything there is to know about life and death. The tree in a garden will witness more people in its lifetime than a human life.

The waves we are riding are bumpy and are characterized by highs and lows. When we hit a low, we might question whether the wave will come crashing down on us and sweep us away. But we cannot expect life, or any human, to be smooth or perfect sailing. Life is in flow like the ocean. One wave might crash down on us and the next might take us onto unknown heights.

We have been trained to have our mind interpret what’s happening at every moment and conditioned to follow what’s expected. People will tell us, “I know what’s best” or “I know what you need to do.” We may have ended up trusting someone and opening ourselves to the hurt of disappointment. When we think back at that situation, the memory can spark a certain fear and shame in us. But while it may feel very real, it’s just a memory. It doesn’t need to paralyze us.

Many people spend much of their lives imprisoned by a memory of where they have been or what they have experienced and keep playing the movie and its sequel in their mind. When we realize that we are still here and that experience was here to teach us, we can let the memory go. Some people in our lives are more akin to a storm in our lives, while others are more like calming waterfalls. We get to choose who we surround us with.

Keep breathing. Our mindset matters. Life is unpredictable as is nature. One day there is calm and the next an unexpected storm can come from around the bend, and it may surprise us. After some time, a storm will pass. Some will last a few days and others may be shorter. These storms will not only be outdoors, they will come in the form of people inviting us to be part of their outrage at whatever controversy is playing out on our screens. We don’t have to be swept away in a storm of anger and fear. These storms will pass when we don’t need to engage with what does not resonate with us or someone else’s “fight.” We can simply keep breathing and smiling at our own rhythm.

We are being called to live and plant seeds that matter. Living in a world of resolutions can be a trap. When we constantly measure ourselves and stick to pre-defined goals, we can get stuck.

The healthiest action I took recently was walking away from the self-proclaimed experts, gurus and influencers — anyone with an agenda, the best way to live or wanting me to consume more of what they have to sell. One tells us that eggplants and night shade vegetables is bad for us, while another tells us that consuming eggplants will help us live longer. None of them know our bodies and how it responds. One size fits all only works if you are an X-large t-shirt.

Our own navigation system — our body, our heart and our spirit — tells us wha it needs when we are tuned into ourselves. We can become aware of what is healthy and what is toxic for our body. Some will push themselves to go to the gym to live up to their goal, while all our body wants is rest and movement. It’s important to move and be active, and be conscious of consuming natural food, but to live fully, we need to make space to trek into possibilities and the unknown. Flow doesn’t come with resistance. Resistance often shows up as disease and illness that generates stress

We’ve been taught to place goals and accomplishments ahead of our well-being, desires and natural gifts. What if you can let go of the stress that has skewed the signals between what your heart and soul most crave and what is expected of you? What happens when you realize that societal stress has been passed from generation to generation and it’s time to break this pattern and simply surrender to the unknown?

What seeds is your heart inviting you to plant in your garden in 2022?