Life Finds a Way

I love thinking about the journey of a seed, especially as it relates to our own story of launch.

Cultivating a seed is safe.  Relatively.  It is done in the dark.  Can even be done inside.  The seed must start its journey underground.  Once that seed breaks open, it grows further down, first!  Only after developing its roots’ system does its ascent up, toward the ground.

Imagine the seedling sprout making its way through the soil (in the first person).

The first break of light enters the dig shaft.  A whole new world opens up.  A whole other existence awaits.  There is a new future.  Beyond the darkness.  There is life outside the tunnel.  We are going somewhere.  The intense desire to grow was coming from somewhere true.   

And once adjusted to the massive intake of light, there is something about the light we crave.  A massive, certain desire takes over.  We know we are to grow toward the light.  Some deep, inner compelling takes over.  This is our new north star.  This is what we are now after.

This is what we have been after!

So we reach.  And reach.  And reach.  The deep intuition knows it is time to grow.  We can feel the heat.  We can know the nutrients that fill us.  It is a deep satisfaction.  A validation.  This is what we are here for.  Growing feels right.  We reach for the sun till we can’t reach anymore.   

Now a plant never reaches the sun.  That may seem painfully obvious but is worth noting.  As much as a plant reaches and grows toward the sun, even awkwardly at times, the goal is never achieved.  Does the plant know that?  Or does it simply know the energy it receives is good?

Does the plant in that moment receive some sort of joy-filled vindication that in reaching for the sun it is doing exactly what it is meant to do?  Does the warmth of that sun reflect some inner peace and certainty that indeed the plant is known?  Welcomed?  Even loved? (I know this is a strange line of questions…hang in there.)

Plants are not human, obviously, but certainly they exhibit the traits of life-affirming beings.  Plants want to survive.  They want to live.  Though their process may be instinctual, we have much to learn from them.  Perhaps our breakthrough, like theirs, is in simply chasing the sun.

Following the inner-drive toward the light.  The plant’s blooming may be incidental to its drive to reach toward the sun.  The budding or flowering of the plant may also be a by-product.  The real mission is simply and steadily to grow.  To keep reaching.  To enjoy that sun.

Does a plant know its own end game?  Does it know what it is ultimately becoming?  Does it have a mechanism inside itself to know when it is done blooming?  Interestingly, blooming is when a plant becomes sexually active and starts the process of reproduction.

Think of it: as a plant starts to flower and fruit into dazzling colors and flavors, it is cast into the throws of reproduction.  They want to multiply.  Some deep impulse within it is executed.  Grow!  Reproduce.  Multiply!  To do so means putting your best on display for the world.

So, as plants are in the last days of reaching for the sun, they are at their most dazzling.  They are not only gifting the world with their physical presence and reality, they are seeding a whole new generation of plants after them.  Think of that: Both things happening at once!

After this incredible finale, some plants die and are absorbed back into the earth from which they came.  It is in this final and wonderful act of nature that reproduction begins again.  Seeds are sown.  Ideas are spread.  Love is circulated.  And life continues to find a way. You too can do this!