The Humility of Planting

The planting of any kind of seed requires a certain amount of faith in something beyond what we can see, hear or touch.  It is the very essence of humility.  By planting a seed we take our hopes and dreams, our fondest desires and lay them in the ground with nothing but faith that they will rise again from that clay and blossom into fruition.  We subject our will to that of providence, the elements, and the capricious whims of the earth.  There are no guarantees in gardening, there are no certainties or promises.  The soil doesn’t come to us begging to be used.  The trees and vines will not chastise us if they are not planted along our fields.  Nothing pulls us to a garden but our own humility.

            It is one of the first lessons of the Georgic tradition.  The earth could get along without us.  The fields would grow thick with grass and vegetation of many kinds.  Animals would fertilize it, worms would till it, and rain would water it.  It is we who are the beggars; we who come time and again with our meager offerings of hoe and rake and seed, and beg of the land and her creator a harvest.

            We sow our seeds in humility and with faith we wait for the true leaves to appear.