NURTURE YOUR SEED

Photo by Johannah Reimer

"Nurture your (seed) whether it blossoms or not, whether it lives or dies, learn about your (seed) as you would a friend. Notice how you feel when you nurture with care and attention."
Jim Cecil

It is spring my friend, whether the weather where you are feels like it or not. Here in Boulder, the trees bloomed, the daffodils blossomed, and then it snowed. 
Are we supposed to be blooming? Are we still hibernating? Are we incubating? What the f are we doing?!
Well I can tell you what I'm doing.
I'm nurturing my seed.
I'm looking at all the maybes, all the could, shoulds, musts, and possibilities I am experiencing. All the opportunities, requests, and things I want to do, and I'm taking a step back.

When we hold a seed in our hand, and project on it the expectation of a flower, or plant, or whatever's pictured on the tag ....well, we are ignoring the essence of the seed in this very moment. That seed needs to be loved and appreciated unconditionally. Whether it blooms or not. Whether it puts forth food or not. That seed, just like a child, desires only to be seen as it is, as a seed. As unknown potential. No matter what the outcome. 

So before I jump headfirst into this summer's chaos,. I am dancing my seed. I am loving her, caressing her, and honoring for what she is. She is vulnerable and raw, and she does not need my shoulds, my musts, my expectations and pressure. She is perfect as she is. As we are. 

In Awaken The Dance this week, we danced our seeds. We danced their tenderness, their unlimited potential. We danced nurturance and nourishment, we dropped expectations and demands, we returned again and again to that feeling of the nascent seed. 

Here's what the dancers had to say:

"I'm very much letting the seeds become what they need to. Most of my life I forced them to grow and expected that this is supposed to be this, without nurturing them. There was no space for an organic growing process. I've been burning myself out trying to catch up to summer, but I'm still in winter, and all the pressure of having to go outside and do stuff because it's so nice! But the rainy days last week, I took care of myself. I allowed myself to be home, to not "be" something. So this was a great reminder to take care of myself and let the seeds become what they need to."

"The focus on not caring how the seed manifests, letting go of what the seed manifests into, felt like I could indulge loving my seed in a totally new way."

"I tend to hibernate and close down in the winter. Spring is my awakening time and this helped me enter that stage of being ready for growth and wamth."

"I really enjoyed being with the seed and the power that's in a  seed- it's mind blowing. It was really liberating."

"I just went on vacation with my family and I noticed how quickly I stopped caring for myself. It was stunning as I realized how much I just stopped! Today was dislodging me from that place. I renewed and nurtured myself. Thank you!"

"I'm really happy to move and unhinge some things, reconnect with my body, I'm planting a seed to just come back to me, come back to home. I'm so appreciating everything we have here."

"I'm just hanging out letting it be what it needs to be. I'm trying not to try anything. Instead of I should/could/would- I'm just trying to be, and trying not to try."

"I'm trying to resource myself enough to get through this major life transition and find the fire and passion in my seed- to stand for what I want to stand up for! It's really a challenge for me, so that's what I'm with."  

 "I've had so many nourishing moments in the last few weeks, I'm coming back to myself. Today I was the soil and that was really special- I felt so internal and not worried about what the seed was doing."    

Dance Invitation: As the energy of spring pushes its way into your life, remember your seed. Be with your seed with slowness, tenderness. With  unconditional appreciation. Allow what's getting ready to bloom in you to do it on its own terms, regardless of your expectations or ideas. Be with the physical sense in your body, where do you feel it? What does it want? How can you tend it?