Seeds

I planted seeds in my garden yesterday, and today it looks exactly the same as it did before I popped those little seeds in. 

Some of them will grow through the layers of soil, others will not.

Some of them I will see in a couple of days, others may take a few weeks. 

Their seed leaves will be first, little baby leaves that look nothing like what they will mature into, and day by day their stalks will push further into the world, while their root system grows unseen into the ground.

At some point flower buds will form, potentially attracting a new predator into my little garden that I will need to deal with. Some flowers will be pollinated, others will not, and if you are like me and plant yourself an edible garden, some of those pollinated flowers will begin an otherworldly transformation and turn into something that you can eat. 

This process, for my last years batch of snow peas, took over two months. Eight weeks of almost daily care, nutrition, and loving walks around my garden celebrating each new milestone we have reached together. 

The end result of any endeavour does not come from one hard night's work. 

The harvest would not be happening if not for the daily contribution of everything involved leading up to that moment. The sunshine, the soil, the temperature, the hidden worlds of mycelium and worms, all collaborating together in a magic so mundane it’s easy to forget it even exists. 

You don’t become an award winning gardener in your first season, and neither will you recover from your mental illness in your first therapy session, or paint a masterpiece on every canvas. 

It takes time and constant nurturing, but just like an abundant garden, your home-grown wealth in all of these endeavours will be well worth the work and the wait.

XXXX ALi