The Seed

Long ago, at the beginning of all things, there was a seed.?This seed knew no parents.?Nothing cam before it, so what parents could it have?

The seed knew nothing, in fact, though it felt plenty.?It had no words for what it felt; there were no words yet.?But it felt a need to stretch, to expand, to grow.?It felt constrained, imprisoned by the unyielding shell it couldn’t perceive or conceptualize, but which provided the protective womb that had gotten it this far faithfully and without complaint.

It strained and strained, and then, like water suddenly breaking through a damn it found its way through and it grew.?It found itself in good, moist, fertile, stable soil that would easily and gladly support its growth, though it didn’t know what soil was or what it was for, or that it would be growing and need this resource.?It grew fast.?Really fast.

In little more than an instant it grew into a tree so massive and grand that it defies human imagination.?It was confusing, jarring, uncomfortable, even painful.

The great branches of the tree, each remembering the comfort and safety of the seed, and each forgetful that they each are the tree, not the whole tree, but just as legitimately a part as any other, and without recognition of any of their fellow branches as also part of the tree, began to view each other with suspicion, as if the other branches either knew how to get back to the seed and weren’t sharing, or maybe even were the cause of its disappearance.

They began competing with each other for the light of the abundant sun the tree found itself with overhead, gladly providing nourishing light in silent, unacknowledged and sacred service.?They began twisting around each other, attempting to take more space for light from one another, convinced each other were not sharing as they should.?The great roots of the tree were doing much the same in the fine soil they found themselves in, competing for space for the nutrients to be found in it, all too confused and concerned with each other to see themselves are part of the same tree.

The leaves, flowers, and fruits which emerged on the branches, transient and unaware of the struggles of the branches that led to their often less-than-optimal states, and without agency to affect it anyway, also competed with each other, even from the same branches, their own confusion even greater by the lack of context their transient nature provided them for choices and actions that greatly affected their daily existences.?Often they would fall away from the tree at the end of their time in dismay and disappointment, feeling almost as if they had been cheated of the beautiful existence they were supposed to have, even for those whose departure was not at all premature.

One day, after a long, long time of the branches and roots struggling with each other, with the leaves and flowers and fruits all held unknowingly at the mercy of these perturbations and self-entanglings, a great storm came in on wild, fierce winds.

The winds blew and blew and shook all the branches of the tree.?Some of the leaves and flowers blew right off, unable to endure the insistent movements of the winds any longer.?The branches shook so violently that the roots also feel the violent tremors, and were tossed around not unlike the branches.

Nearly every part of the tree was uncertain, if not fearful that they might be ripped away and destroyed any time in this unforgiving storm.

During this tempest a strange thing happened.?Some of the branches, especially the oldest ones closest to the trunk, began to rouse from their confusion and realize that they are part of the tree, and that so are the other branches.?Some of the great roots similar began to awake.

As they began to understand this, and see how tangled up they were in one another, they also began to want to untangle, to free themselves and the other branches they were wrapped up with from this unnecessary, self-inflicted bondage.

To their pleasant surprise, untangling was far easier than getting tangled up in the first place.?They didn’t have to go through some long process of untangling, or acknowledging to each other that they had been entangled, or seeking buy-in or permission from other branches they were entangled with.?All they had to do was remember who they were, and want to be untangled.

They couldn’t untangle any other branches or roots — they would have to do that themselves, but could do so in the same manner — but they could untangle themselves, use their newfound freedom to truly expand into the expression they always meant to be, and just maybe serve as an example for branches that were still in semi-somnambulant struggle.

? 2023 Pearl Arbor