In my variety of readings this Christmas Eve morning, I read Seth Godin’s blog post about “the seeds we plant.” It resonated with me on many levels. I know many of us feel that 2020 was a horrible, even wasted year, but that may not be true. Yes, schedules were interrupted, goals revised or thrown away, vacations halted and even jobs lost.

My hunch however, is for most of us, we actually DID plant some seeds perhaps without knowing it. And yes, there are those too who did not but the good news there is that there is always today and tomorrow and the day after that to become inspired.

The New Year is about to start and we each have been blessed with a clean slate to work from as 2021 begins. As a yoga teacher and practitioner, a yoga class centered around the this idea of planting seeds that were meant to represent aspects of our life we can plant and watch and work as they grow throughout the year. Moving from pose to pose, with our palms in downward dog, or with our knees and toes in child’s pose, we can visualize planting our seeds.

Picture an enormous garden, or an empty field that was longing to be turned into a forest. Now imagine you are a vessel filled with seeds and every time you touched the ground, a new pod would be planted. Plant seeds of love for family. Plant some in honor of wishes of health for the people you know who are going through physical hardships. Plant seeds that represent your passions and goals in both business and service. As you plant, imagine that the seeds you plant today would grow into a lush forest or beautiful vegetable garden, bearing fruits that you would share with everyone in your life. See the pods growing and in what season – perhaps the early spring or some transformed in the summer’s heat. And some, even with loving care and attention may never take root. The forest and garden you plant represent you and the body you live inside. You are not your body but your authentic and true self – the one that longs to be heard and released resides inside the body. The body houses “you” and helps us live and touch as many people’s lives as possible.

Most believers are familiar with the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8). The emphasis in this parable is usually placed on the soil onto which the seed fell. But if you shift the focus from the different types of soil discussed in the parable what is left is another spiritual truth of great importance… The seed is the Word of God. Again, in faith, we see this idea of planting seeds playing a part in our lives.

When a believer focuses on the Word of God as life-giving seed, having faith becomes much easier. It is the Word that is doing the work to change the situation, not the one doing the speaking. Once we have chosen a scripture to stand on and have declared it concerning our situation, we, from that point on, begin to thank God daily that the seed is in the ground growing. Every time we declare the Word is at work in our situation, it is like watering a seed that has been planted in the ground – it is giving that seed the nourishment it needs to grow. Our praising/thanking God for the harvest of the seed planted is what is needed for the seed to develop to maturity.

Finally, there is another important aspect to the Word being recognized as seed. That is, seed takes time to grow. While we would all like to see instantaneous results to our prayers, more times than not it does not happen in that way. In Genesis 8:22a God established the principle of “seedtime and harvest”; 22 As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest…” (GNT) Stated another way, “seed + time = harvest.” It’s really quite simple (although not always easy). The Word has an answer for any situation we could possibly face. It comes in the form of a seed. All God asks of us is to plant it and keep it watered through praise and thanksgiving until the harvest comes.

So I am going to continue to plant seeds, to water them and to give praise and thanksgiving through my faith. Even if you are not religious, you can still realize this idea of planting seeds to start out the New Year on a more positive and selfless note.

Thanks for reading my ramblings