GROW - SURRENDER

All the buried seeds
crack open in the dark
the instant they surrender
to a process they can't see
- Mark Nepo

In the spring I begin planting my garden. This week as I start to see blooming and flowers, and plants slowly coming up, I was thinking about the courage of the seeds. Spring is a powerful lesson. All around us - everything small and buried surrenders to a process that none of the buried parts can see. This surrender allows everything edible to break ground and enter into a life that we call Spring. They welcome the rain, they wait for the sun. And we wait, patiently, as these courageous seeds surrender and continue to grow.

In nature, we see so many models of how to give ourselves over to what appears dark and hopeless is really an awakening. This moving through the dark into blossom. As we submit and surrender to the process, and continue to trust, we are taking the first step towards growth. Towards becoming. 

One of my yoga teachers said so beautifully in her most recent class that "we get further by surrender than we do with force". There are four lilac bushes in my back yard. For years, we waited for them to bloom. Watering them, talking to them, wondering if they were ever going to produce flowers. This year we saw the first flower and it reminded me that all along they were blooming. That even when we don't see it, the growth is still happening. Even in the stillness, in the rest, in the times you feel you will never be able to keep going. Remember, we get further by surrender than we do with force.

With love & gratitude,
​Hannah