Rise of the Elephant Ears

 Friends, you wouldn't believe how tall the elephant ears are. They've risen to the height of the gazebo and are not showing any signs of slowing down. The three amigos in their bed have had several seed pods, to our delight, and now we've got baby elephant ears going nicely in the greenhouse. I admired them on my walk around the yard this morning in my ruby red belted robe, harvesting beans and green tomatoes, a cucumber, and stashing them in my pocket. Now I'm on the swing listening to "The Sound of Sunshine" as performed by the band at Jubilee Circle.

Elephant ears love the sunshine --- we just have to keep the water coming to the roots, stand by and let them spread outward and upward. This photo is from earlier in the summer, and you can see the seed pods. Having never had any before, I didn't know how the process worked --- the pod becomes a pale yellow bloom, and only when the bloom dies do the berry-like seeds emerge, looking like corn on the cob, only bright red.

The seeds look like this:

(image and more information at The National Gardening Association)

I'm thinking about how we gather seeds , too --- sometimes positive seeds, but also of anger, and hold them tightly in a pod until they burst and fall, spreading everywhere. We could choose to spread seeds of kindness, and this is the message of our Jubilee Circle pastor today. 

"Love one another... love your enemy..." that kind of thing has come down to us from the divine, but as the pastor explains, recalcitrant human beings are swayed by the ego to do otherwise. We forget the premise easily when someone cuts us off in traffic or disappoints us in other ways, and the seed pod we are nurturing in our hearts becomes fertilized with resentment rather than radiated with love.

The elelphant ear seedling is willing to become transformed into a green broad-leaved, massive giant. It doesn't hold back. If only we could love this way and seek so simply the basic ingredients of good health and growth.

(painting by Virginia Miranda)

We crave so much -- and much that isn't good for us, at least not on a regular basis. Other people have their own cravings, and when we are focused on those cravings, they can separate us, tear us apart at the root. We can get so greedy and selfish that we forget our shared dream of hope and health, of happiness. Even in the smallest act of kindness can help us create good karma for ourselves and others.

A friend of mine has on at least three occasions shared with me his thoughts on my little chapbook Earth Gospel, a collection of poems exploring the natural world and throwing in some mythology, sociology, and more. He has taken the time to call me, to send me messages with his perceptions of what I've written, and told me how the poems both calm him and bring him joy. What an incredibly generous gift. What a kindness to a poet's soul. He has planted seeds of encouragement in me.

What are we planting today in the soil of another. Are we ready to be kind... to tend the seedlings we have planted in our friends and loved ones until they grow mighty, until they are not only rooted but free?

Growing from the seeds of your kind attention,

Tamara