Sacred Seed

If we and our partners, our families, want not to suffer, not to be caught in blaming and fighting, we can sign a peace treaty.  We say, “Darling, I know there is a seed of anger in you.  I know that every time I water that seed, you suffer and you make me suffer also.  So I make the vow to refrain from watering the seed of anger in you.  I promise.  Of course I also promise not to water the seed of anger in me.

                                                                                                     Thich Nhat Hanh, Reconciliation, p.85

_______________________________________________

Each of us carries inside us “seed”

Thoughts and feeling unformed

And yet with the potential of blossoming

Into something very real and powerful

There are the seeds of anger, despair, fear and hate

And also the seeds of compassion, hope, and understanding

The seeds stay there, until something touches them

Until one way or another they awakened

Ah, then the fun begins

For far too often we water those seeds

Allowing them to bloom and grow

And soon our souls are filled with weeds

(we all know about weeds)

Uncontrolled and pervasive

But we have other seeds

And we can water them as well

And the more energy we put into cultivating those seeds

The more we can liberate ourselves

For those things that would choke our souls

It is not as much that we fight them, as we embrace them

We surround our anger and hate with love and acceptance

And thus they are contained

And then there is that one seed that is the most critical of all

The seed of the Sacred

That capacity to connect with and be embraced by the divine

The ability to let our inner space become Sacred space

And become Sacred Children

This is the seed we must nurture most of all