One Small Seed

Picture this for a moment: You are cutting up vegetables to make a nice crisp salad for yourself. The lettuce is chopped up and the cucumbers sliced into perfect white coins. You've added a little red onion and you reach for the tomato. You take the sharp edge of your knife and slice commandingly through it's deep red skin, through it's juicy flesh. You take the slices and add them to the top of your salad. As you clean away the tomato juices, you see tiny white flecks on the counter. They are seeds, tiny little seeds.

Instead of clearing those seeds into the garbage can, you decide to keep a few of them. You dry them for a few days and then take the small pile of seeds and plant them in rich soil. You water them and sun them. You wait for what seems like an eternity for just one tiny little green sprout. When that sprout emerges, you still have yet to understand what you have created, but the anticipation is exciting.

Within a few days to weeks, you panic as the tall sprouts now over shadow the small container that once held a few seeds. The sprouts have multiplied and have grown to almost foot tall and are starting to bend and wither. They need to be transplanted into a larger container, with support for their stature, at once. You know that in their current environment, they will not survive, so time is of the essence.

Carefully you remove the tiny plants from their crowded home. They have grown tremendoulsy below the soil as well, with long intertwining roots. Gently, you move your tender friends to a large pot with a metal fencing for them to cling to, as they grow. Again, you water them in their rich soil and you have positioned them into a sunlit environment. Your job is not yet complete though and so you wait.

In a short amount of time, you begin to see tiny flavescent flowers springing from the stalk of your little friends. You revel at the beuaty of the contrast between the deep green leaves and the bright yellow petals. A closer observation reveals that there are in fact green balls growing near these flowers. Your first tomatoes have emerged.

As you go through each day, continuing to nurture the plants, you notice dozens of small spheres on every stem and less of the bright yellow flowers. Some of the tiny tomatoes have begun to grow oblong;others have doubled or tripled in size. With every passing day, these small tomatoes emerge, grow and mature.

It has been a couple of weeks since you enjoyed the salad that was topped with the parent tomato. It has been a bit of work and time consuming to change those tiny white flecks into their current state. It has been a process by which you had never taken the time before, to carefully observe. Yet, the time has come to harvest the rewards.

On a daily basis, you nurture your tomato friends and gently pull from its stems, large crimson tomatoes to use at your will. And, as you slice through each of these tomatoes, you look at the white flecks, the seeds, in a different way.

The one tomato you started with, provided many seeds. Those seeds, when planted in a nurturing environment grew to strong healthy plants. Those plants blossomed and produced more "fruit". And from every single one, the cycle may begin again. From one little seed, the harvest was 10-fold. And, for your time and effort, you will never go without.

Every thing you think,do or say in this life is "one little seed" and you will harvest 10 or even 100-fold on it. The more you nurture those seeds; the better the environment, the bigger and more vibrant the "fruit." You can choose not to nurture them, however, you will most assuredly starve. Plant seeds today and nurture them every single day. Take notice of how those seeds grow, and what adjustments are required to stabilize their environment. Allow the seeds the freedom to move and flow in their natural way. You will harvest far more than you sowed. Your life will become far more vibrant. You will find deeper appreciation for even the smallest seed. Your life will reflect your great purpose and you will be truly successful.