Seedlings

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Spring. Take a moment, and visualize the weather improving and see yourself deciding to go out and take a walk at your favorite place to go into nature.  See yourself walking along a lightly traveled forest path that winds through a grove of birch or alder trees. Lost in thought, you are startled to see that you have entered an area on the path where multiple seedlings have taken root, and without meaning to you have stepped on several and pushed them into the ground.

How do you feel?

Maybe you feel some remorse, or maybe you just change your position on the path and go forward avoiding the seedlings ahead of you. Perhaps you comfort yourself with the belief that they can just spring back up, which may be true. Or, your Druid heritage may lead you to try to stand them up again.

Now, imagine that you have been struggling to find a new direction for your life path. You’ve come up with a number of ideas for where to go next in your life, and each time you get excited about an idea you run it by a very important and loving person in your life who has a tendency to counsel you by warning what could go wrong and finding the potential downside.

How do feel?

Maybe you find yourself mentally scrambling to create solutions for all the possible negative outcomes and end up in an argument. At worst, you say “you’re right I need to think this through more” and leave deflated and figuring you have to start from scratch.

Spring is a time of new growth – in nature, and in our hearts, minds and Spirits. Every culture and faith honors this time as a rebirth of some kind, and that put me in mind of seedlings – whether of trees or ideas for your life journey. And I thought of the Witches’ Pyramid, which says that there are four tasks or elements required when we are attempting to start something new that is very important to us. And I felt the wisdom of this teaching as a formula for protecting the seedlings in our lives whether in our forests, our gardens, or in our hearts.

The punch line:  Do not expose your seedlings to an environment in which their lives may be cut short before they have a chance to flourish.

The four elements for attempting to manifest anything in our lives are these:

• To know: Investigating and gathering all the information available to determine whether this outcome or path is for you. And, trusting your internal knowing. The seed knows so innately what it is to become it simply becomes it.

If you are a gardener, you know how fragile a shoot growing from a seed can be, and how much it needs protecting from extremes of temperature, overwatering, and lack of light. The new ideas and hopes and dreams we cherish and hope to manifest are no less fragile and must be protected from exposure to negativity and critique – lack of light and nourishment.

• To will: Focusing your will and attention and time on your new direction. The seedling gathers the water and sun and CO2 in the environment and mobilizes them in perfect synchrony to grow quickly toward the light.

How much effort does a gardener put into the preparation and maintenance of the plants they are hoping to harvest in a few months? They reset your priorities and daily routine to ensure that the garden thrives, and they focus and direct a lot of energy toward that. Once we know the new life we wish to pursue, we must be no less single-minded about nurturing it into existence. We must become fully engaged in the both the work of bringing it into being, and allowing Spirit to support us.

• To dare:  Stepping forward and acting as if the path is before you, taking positive steps toward creating the life path you want, taking a chance and getting out of your comfort zone. The seedling grows and makes the necessary changes to be able to stand straight as it grows taller.

We bring the plants out of the greenhouse and place them in the soil. We dare to establish a real living garden as part of the wider world of nature. Likewise, we start courageously releasing what no longer serves us and reallocating our time to the new life path we seek.

• To be silent: Keeping your own counsel until your new beginning has started to bear fruit. The tree asks no one’s permission to be what it is.

We do not invite others to walk into our gardens until the plants are well established. And, we must not expose our enthusiasms, our new ideas, our new life path to those we know disagree, disapprove, or will surely keep us living in the cloud of limitations rather than the inspiration of the silver lining we are beginning to see.

Water your plants and pursue your dreams far enough that you can enjoy the harvest of all the energy of mind, heart, body, and Spirit you have invested in becoming who you are.

And when others place their seedlings before you, listen, support, and encourage their growth.

Spring blessings to you all.