The Power of Seeds
Inside a seed lives all of the necessary components and potential for life, despite their small appearance seeds are strong. Each spring they wake from their slumber and move towards the light from the soil. Whether we look at the spikey coating of a burdock seed, intended to cling to animals and humans to travel, or the woodland seeds coated in a delicious elaiosome, attracting ants to carry the seed held inside to their ant hills for stratification. Evolutionarily speaking, seeds have become masterful in their techniques for expanding life forward, and there is so much us humans can learn from their ingenuity.
Seeds are a type of genius often overlooked, and the practice of saving seeds connects us to the land, the soil, sun and water which churn together to create life. Seeds hold ancestral power as they connect us with past, future and the present moment. Our ancestors collected seeds each fall, stored them in winter and planted seeds each spring. When our nomadic ancestors followed the herds of animals that sustained their diet, they brought seeds to plant along the trail. When people faced violent oppression, it was the seeds which they tucked into their hair. When people left their homelands in pursuit of a better life, they took the seeds which connected them with home to sow on new soils. The very act of saving seeds feels like an access point to time travel, connected to the hands of our ancestors sowing seeds, and the future, because the act of planting a seed is a sacred act of looking forward.
Seeds are a powerful and life affirming practice. Whether you become a student of their mystery or plant seeds in anticipation of life to come, seeds connect us through time, to the land, and to ourselves.
We live in a capitalistic society, one which disconnects us from ourselves, the land and each other. We often look towards the human world to help us navigate what it means to be human, unaware or assuming that the non human life around us has nothing to offer….yet the land has the potential to anchor us to the rhythms and patterns of life, because life is in constant relationship, and from our relationship to land, bubbles upwards a way of being, and shapes our language and culture.
In our quickening and intensifying world, seeds are medicine for the soul. Go ahead and walk your favorite trails, find seeds along the path, say thank you as you collect them, and scatter them around the trail, trusting that they know what to do from there; a simple yet profound invitation to say thank you to the land and look towards the future.
