Spring has come to the Kootenays!  Though we might still get another snowfall, the red-winged blackbirds and rufous-sided towhees and robins have decreed it.  And one does not fly thousands of miles to make such a statement without clear intuition…

The energy of transformation is all around us (you can see it on Baker Street when the sun is out, LOL!).  Our plant and animal brothers and sisters are undergoing changes, too.  The buds on the willow shoots are thickening, and the earliest spring seeds are starting the process of converting starches into sugars, becoming sweeter, before breaking open their hard seed coats and reaching forth.  One stretching tendril of the seed will turn downwards and anchor itself in the soil and the other tendril will stretch skyward.  Seeds, like people, always grow like this.

The process begins with an awareness that change is necessary, that we haven’t yet expressed our true potential and that we can become more than we have been.  Then comes the sweetness; we envision, dream and affirm that we ARE more than we have allowed ourselves to experience.

Now a choice must be made.  To break open our hard seed coats and grow, we must expose ourselves to all of the perils out there.  And at no other time in our lives will we be more vulnerable than when we unfurl our first tender leaf.  A mouse or insect may chew our leaf, and our roots will likely encounter stones or clay, but we are more resilient than we may have supposed.  We grow new tender leaves and our roots spread deeper.

Or, we choose to remain a closed seed and wait.  Maybe we’ll open when the soil is warmer, or when the soil moisture is just right, or when the competition for sunlight isn’t so fierce.  We might wait a long time…  some will even die while waiting.

But when we do break open, we match action with intuition.  Our new roots know to establish a firm foundation with all that has come before.  We drink of the minerals that are the wisdom and knowledge of the ancient stones.  And we are vitalized by the nutrients of all those who have lived and died, their fallen leaves and bodies, their essence lying in wait before being transformed into our new expression.

We make certain that our roots are firm, and then we reach skyward, bursting through the soil wall and into light.  And we experience a new magic.  Allowing ourselves to expand and stand exposed to the elements of light, air and water, we receive these gifts, internalize them, and taste a new sweetness.  Is it fructose or is it love?

You decide.

Blessings,

Chris Morasky
Dr. Michael Smith
Pathways School
250-357-2822