Seeds Pointing to a Possible Future for Next Generations 

sweet pea seeds securely nestled in their pods 

The last few sweet pea flowers are straggling along in my now dry, mostly un-watered garden. I am just about to wrap up harvesting their seeds. I love this ritual: waiting for green pods to turn brown and brittle, collecting from various spots, splitting them open, the tactile joy of teasing the firm seeds out of their shell. Filling my old metal jar. The irregular round seeds rattle and roll with a satisfying tune – riches in my hand. I got plenty, offering some as gifts to friends. Come winter rains, I push the seeds in the wet ground. Of course, the sweet pea vines have been reseeding all along.  

 

sweet pea flowers with their intensely floral and slightly sweet fragrance

Left in the hot sun, the pods split, curling into spirals. The pods’ spiraling force propels the seeds out into the world. I marvel how flowers have been our first little women engineers. A clever and simple mechanism, so life can be continued. Propagating beauty, dispersing hope, thinking of future generations. We humans knew how to do that, too; didn’t we? Do we still care enough, so that when we die, our legacy will be hope – "the thing with feathers"?

 

Standing at the precipice. 

Innocent wet fish, out of water,

unknowing, and yet no fools…

As we old ones disappear, may

precious hope and tempered courage

be propelled into the future…

 

boldly lighting the tentatively arched way forward,

seeding themselves like coy miracles

in midst of utter chaos….