What does the seed in you want to reveal?

All the buried seeds crack open in the dark, the instant they surrender to a process they can’t see. What a powerful lesson is the beginning of spring. All around us, everything small and buried surrenders to a process that none of the buried parts can see. And this innate surrender allows everything edible and fragrant to break ground into a life we call spring.

 

In nature, we are quietly given countless models of how to give ourselves over to what appears dark and hopeless, but which is ultimately an awakening beyond all imagining. As a seed buried in the earth cannot imagine itself as an orchid or hyacinth, neither can a heart packed with hurt imagine itself loved or at peace. The courage of the seed is that once cracking, it cracks all the way.

—Mark Nepo, from The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being

Present to the Life You Have

Like the first disciples, we often move into the Easter Season cautiously, while so much is still shrouded in holy mystery. So much in our lives needs to be broken open and seen again—and perhaps for the first time. Mark Nepo offers a helpful perspective: “In nature, we are quietly given countless models of how to give ourselves over to what appears dark and hopeless, but which is ultimately an awakening beyond all imagining. As a seed buried in the earth cannot imagine itself as an orchid or hyacinth, neither can a heart packed with hurt imagine itself loved or at peace. The courage of the seed is that once cracking, it cracks all the way.”

What does the seed in you want to reveal? How does it want to challenge you, move you, inspire you?

How does it want to help you recognize the movement of love in our world? The movement of grace? The movement of hope? What does it take for us to recognize these gifts? How do we know when we are seeing love—grace—and hope in action?

I truly believe that our hearts want to be open, welcoming, compassionate, and responsive to the needs in the world. Love wants to be seen—and it wants to use our hands. . . . How are we going to make that happen?

Ours is a holy journey, and what is emerging will break new ground. This journey is not content to stabilize things back to the status quo. It refuses to strive for “normal,” to fulfill stale expectations, to keep everything the way it is, to be safe. This journey strives to break open the world in ways that will set our hearts ablaze with hope for all people and open our eyes to the incredible, unbelievable, astonishing things that surround us—already and forever—in this moment.

What does it take for us to see these gifts? What does it take for the seed to crack all the way open—unable to ever close again to the rest of the world?

Recently, I read the story of Ibby, a deaf man who stops at the same coffee shop everyday on his way to work. And every day he orders the same thing—a caramel Frappuccino. And since he can’t communicate verbally, he has the order written on his phone to show the cashier every day. Most of the workers know his order by heart. So, he rarely has to show it to them anymore. But last week, when Ibby entered the coffee shop, the barista handed him a note that said, “I’ve been learning ASL so you can have the same experience as everyone else.” Then she started signing to him, asking him what he would like to order today. They chatted in sign for a few minutes, and he learned that she had spent hours watching YouTube videos just so that she could take his order the way she does for everybody else. Ibby says he had never felt so seen in all of his life.

How do we recognize the movement of love in our world?

I also read a friend’s account of attending another friend’s daughter’s bat mitzvah at a local synagogue. As he walked toward the doors, he saw five people holding signs along the path. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Surely, they can’t be protesting!” And he was right. They weren’t protesters; they were Muslims. And their signs read, “We’re better together. We’ll keep watch while you pray.”

How do we recognize the movement of love in our world?

And a couple of Sundays ago, before I left the church, Riley handed me a beautiful, yellow dandelion. It made me think about how we might change the world if we raised a whole lot of generous dandelion-lovers!

How do we recognize the movement of love in our world? Love wants to be seen—it is all around us—and it wants to use our hands. . . . It is here to illuminate and transform us. It is here to break open our hearts like seed, to open our eyes to the needs of a hurting world and the possibilities of a community like ours. But it is up to us to see it. To believe it. And to share it.

See you in church,

Christy