Destroying the Seed

Any one who has ever planted a seed knows how futile it is to get it to grow quicker than its own natural process. Another futile effort is trying to tell the seed exactly what specifications it needs to grow into.

For example, you plant a marigold seed and fantasize about how tall it will be, how many blossoms it will have, how many leaves it will have, the color of the blooms, etc.; in other words this Marigold seed will turn out to be exactly as you fantasized, down to the last detail. That is just silly. Sure you have the idea it will be a marigold plant, but you have no way of knowing exactly what it will look like.

Now lets take this a step further. Several days have passed since you planted the seed, however you have not seen a sprout yet. In your impatience you adopt the belief that you forgot to give it something or you did not give it enough of something. So you start throwing all your resources at it: extra water; various varieties of plant food; some plant medicines in case it has a disease; a sunnier location; etc. This process even continues once the plant sprouts - if the plant sprouts because all the extra attention may have killed it - to speed up growth and assuage impatience.

As the caretaker of a seed, you only have the basic responsibilities to provide this seed with optimal growing conditions: adequate water; adequate food; proper light; additional intervention if the plant becomes sick; and occasional pulling of weeds that would otherwise choke the seed. No amount of extra effort can coax this seed to grow faster than its predetermined life progression or contract. Sometimes extra effort may positively influence the outcome but it cannot speed up the growth. Other times extra effort boils over into extremes, like over watering, and kills the seed.

Every expectation in life is a seed. Everything that initiates change is a seed. Every atavistic irritation that will not get out of your thoughts is a seed. Seeds are planted all the time in our lives. Our actions determine if this seed will take root, grow, and thrive, or, if it will fade out to be counted among the casualties of war.

This begs the question, what are you doing with your seeds? Will they thrive and strive, or will they struggle and die?