Shaking Out Seeds
Sometimes the disruption caused by an uprooting shakes out the seeds that bring new life in the same soil. There is a time to plant and a time to uproot, but what if those things are set in motion at the same time?
At the end of the season last year, I spent some time uprooting the deceased and unsightly plants tangled up in the flower beds. I grabbed the base of each plant and tugged a few times before the soil parted and the ground gave up its dead. By the force of this particular motion, several seeds were shaken out of the crispy flower heads. As I uprooted each dry plant, focusing on dislodging deep roots, seeds were quietly scattered among craters of loosened soil.
When you think about leaving a place, it’s easy to focus on what’s dying, on the pain of what you are losing or giving up. There’s also a temptation to feel guilty about what you are taking away from others, from the community you have been rooted in for so long. It can’t be sugar-coated: the uprooting is painful, the dislodging feels like death. But while one season comes to an end, another quietly begins. Seeds from the uprooted plant, which brought so much joy and vibrancy in its season, are simultaneously loosened from the seed-head.
This promise and expectancy isn’t just associated with the new land you are moving into; it is actually contained within the same soil you are lifted from. When we move on, we take something with us, but we also leave something behind. From death, there is life. Because of death, there is life. An ending is a catalyst for many new beginnings, death causing new life to spring up later in the same soil. By accepting the end of something, you can set new life in motion.
Those who remain in the garden are blessed in the letting go. For in the empty spaces, new life will grow. The same hand that uproots the plant is also shaking out its seeds.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John 12:24)
I pray that many seeds and many gifts would be unlocked through death and departure that could not be released any other way.
I love your story Mommy! Love you! -Tilda Belle