Today I am thinking about seeds...

Today I am thinking about seeds. Partly because yesterday my landlady had said that I can transform part of an unused section of land into a garden plot (whoop!!) and I'm actually trying to take things slowly enough to plan properly. The little bit of snow still on the ground has helped slow me down, too! Years ago I had a community garden plot (then I moved too far and had to give it up) that I absolutely loved. It was grandfathered over to me almost haphazardly, and for 3 years I got to play in the dirt. I am putting my name in for a new community garden in my neighbourhood, but there can be waiting lists several years long for those, so I'll take whatever I can get! We're still going to have some containers on our pseudo balcony/fire escape, and I might actually look into a growers light so that I can set something up in my kitchen for a year round herb garden. My cat Buster will love that, since he likes to eat my herb plants. Gonna have to work on that.

Mostly why I am thinking about seeds today, though, is that I've just finished checking out the news. Yahoo, Facebook feeds, AP News Service, and others and to be very honest, it's enough to make me want to sit and cry. There is a new Pope with old ideas who firmly believes that women should be seen and not heard; governments and global organizations who use culture and religion to justify everyday atrocities to people, animals and the planet we live on; people so despondant about the state of things, that they've just given up; and that is why I don't just sit and cry.

I do not like the way things are right now. Do I want to fix them? No, actually, I don't. Fixing them implies taking things back to where they worked, or at the very least the way they used to be. The problem with that, though, is that the way it was didn't work. Not really. Systems were put in place which made assumptions that profited those who made the decisions. Those who profited then worked very hard to retroactively prove themselves right. From there, the system was protected by those with a vested interest. More systems were put into place to prop up the initial systems, all of which were defended by those they served and so on. Sure, every now and again a system would be over thrown, usually pretty horrifically, but as nature abhors a vacuum, a New and Improved system would be put in place. Take a look at that statement: new and improved. If it's new, how and from what was it improved? If it's improved, how is it new? So.

Do I want to fix things? No. I want to change them. So I'm starting with some seeds. New ideas are seeds. You have to nuture them, care for them, weed out the bad from the good (and remember: a dandelion farmer would look at a rose bush in the middle of his field as the weed; everything in it's time and place) and recognize that this is a process, as something new emerges. You'll need to protect your seed from outside forces who will want to freeze them with negativity or trample them underfoot to keep them from growing. Growing something new tends to scare a lot of people, and many will try to convince you to stick to the old ways just so that they don't have to face their own fears. Growing seeds is all about perseverance, and a belief that the crop in the end will be worth it.

Today I am thinking about seeds. The changes I can make to make this a better world for everyone else in it, human, animal and plant alike. Now I don't want to cry. Now I want to smile.