SEEDING THE GARDEN






    Now that I had planted the seeds according to a design of square footing and height guidelines, I became the expectant observer waiting and watching for the sprouts to break the surface and grow. I was now on nature time.
    Nature time is the organic cycle of day and night, sun and rain. These cycles have their own sense of intention and presence. These cycles are reflected in each seed, in which each is endowed with the intention to fulfill its mission to grow and prosper. The radish seed becomes a radish. The fennel seed becomes a fennel. The chard seed becomes a chard. Each seed also has its presence. This presence infuses each seed with a connection to the universal consciousness, so that each seed interacts with soil and sun, wind and rain.
    In participating in gardening, I became intertwined with the presence of each seed that I planted. My participation seemed to focus on the food that each seed would become, so that I was aware of the presence but I was not in tune with the presence. That is, presence was in the back of my mind, but I was thinking of eating the radish or the fennel.  I was thinking in linear time of the 8 to 5 work day. Linear time focuses on the seed turning into a vegetable on my table.  But linear time ignored the movement and the energy in the growth of each seed. Now as a gardener, I was part of each minute of each seeds growth.
    In my mind, I heard the BYRDS song version of TURN TURN TURN. The turn turn turn lyrics remind me of presence. Act in the correct season so that there is an awareness of the purpose within all things. In hearing the song, I felt like I was doing more than hearing it: I was now living it. I was now present in nature’s time. I was now participating in the moment of life.
    My mind turned to Rumi. In his poem, not a day on the calendar, he writes of becoming the day, where he is conscious of the greater universe. “This day is conscious of itself, this day is a love, bread and gentleness, more manifest than saying can say, thoughts take form with words, but this daylight is beyond and before thinking and imaging.” graced by the words of Rumi, I was becoming the garden. Here in this backyard garden, encircled by the urban streets, I gained a deeper awareness of presence.
    Like the seeds I had planted in their soil universe, I was planted here in this sun universe, to grow and to create experience.

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