Ep 114.We are all Seeds Rooted in Love

A country song by Kathy Mattea titled Seeds starts with "We're all just seeds in God's hands." I hope you enjoy the story of the magical transport systems of seeds and a reflection of how the song has circled through my life.

We all carry seeds of opportunity to help our dear Earth and our communities and serve others. As we become aware of it, the roots of our spirits grow. And as we shine our light within, the seeds flourish and bloom, becoming a beautiful garden that others will admire, inspiring them to see the magnificent seeds within them.

 Related Stories and Helpful Links 

Ep11. The Promise of Seeds

Seeds Rooted in Love 

The Magic of Seeds 

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I'd love to hear about your garden and nature stories. And your thoughts about topics for future podcast episodes. You can email me at AskMaryStone@gmail.com. Thanks so much for tuning in.

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Mary Stone, Columnist & Garden Designer
              AskMaryStone.com

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Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.

It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.

Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
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Transcript

Ep 114 We are all Seeds Rooted in Love

Fri, Jun 23, 2023 2:47PM • 8:43

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

seeds, garden, plant, song, burrs, beautiful, story, mom, occurs, move, porch, modified, chat, weeds, dilemmas, new smyrna beach, dandelion, critters, rooted, share, dilemmas, mary stone, garden, nature, inspiration

SPEAKERS

Mary Stone

Mary Stone  00:00

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone, and welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries. It's not only about gardens; It's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about. 

Mary Stone  00:26

Hello there, it's Mary Stone, and welcome to Pine Bush, New York, I'm actually visiting the family grave site, which sounds grim, but actually, it's a beautiful moment. I'm looking over the cuttings and divides that I brought from my garden to here. And I have to say many got weed whacked down. But as I dug through the weeds and things that were surrounding them. I found lamb's ear and some hosta, as well as some Heuchura, which is Coral Belle. And so I am delighted that I was able to come up here and do a little garden maintenance. And I'm going to do something a little different this time as well. Because typically, I script our chats. When I say script them, I make notes and sit down with you on the screened porch, of course, share the stories verbatim with some ad-libbing, I suppose. But today, I don't have that prepared. And I'm just going to talk a little bit more spontaneously and see what comes of it. 

Mary Stone  01:23

One of the things I realized, and I imagine you have the same dilemma, is as you go through your daily and weekly lives, you have a lot of things that you need to do and schedules to keep. And it occurs to me; we get caught up in those routines. And sometimes, we have to rethink and reevaluate how we go about things. And that's part of my motivation to sit with you here today.

Mary Stone  01:46

 I want to thank those of you that reached back after our last week's chat about Funky Vegetables - Non-GMO and Organic. I'm glad it helped clear up the confusion. And it inspired some of you to make choices that are non-GMO and Organic even better. 

Mary Stone  02:03

Anyway, I have a newsletter that I send each week that you can sign up for free, and you'll get the current story as well as a reflection of an older one. And that brings me to this week's chat because I'm going to modify a story that we featured in Episode 11, The Promise of Seeds. We're going to update it if you will, maybe prune some of the edges and have it grow a bit fuller with where the song has gone since I first was introduced to it. And it starts like this. 

Mary Stone  02:32

Hello fellow listeners and readers. There's a country song sung by Kathy Mattea that I adore. The name of it is Seeds, and the chorus speaks volumes starting with:  "We're all just seeds in God's hands. We start the same, but where we land is sometimes fertile soil and sometimes sand." I recall that I modified the words to the song from my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. All of the Stones gathered, all of the five pack. And their spouses and grandkids all came. My father loved touting that he was the Origin of the Species, although mom had much to do with it. I can see myself now in the family room in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, a home that I wish we still had to visit. But it was sold after Dad passed away. When Mom began her dementia journey, she moved in with my sister in Virginia. And so I haven't been there since. Although I was in Florida during my brother's illness but never returned to New Smyrna Beach. 

Mary Stone  03:34

I can see myself standing in front of the piano singing the song acapella with the words, "We're all just seeds in God's hands. We start the same, but where we land is sometimes fertile soil and sometimes sand." So powerful. The thing is, sand can be fertile, just as heavy soil or clay soil can be as well. Although our loamy soil is preferred as is neutral pH, more plants then can survive and thrive. But there's always some plant that can survive and different elements in different pH.

Mary Stone  04:08

 I think back to how mom loved to buy plants and just set them in the garden spaces, and then they'd root themselves through the pots. And when I would visit, I would come down and try to plant some of them. But sometimes, they were so deeply rooted that you could not move the plant. Maybe it was a modified, you know, raised garden (smile). There's a lesson in that isn't there- being who you are with where you are living and letting yourself grow accordingly. Anyway, let me get back to some of the story. 

Mary Stone  04:09

Unlike people or animals with more freedom to seek out ideal places to live, plants rely on transport systems that evolved magically to find their way to where they can root and thrive. Late summer and fall, after a walk with Ellie, I marvel and frustrate over how burrs stuck to her fur so It'll be interesting now that I have Jolee if there'll be less burrs since she has shorter fur. I have to say, though, she blows out her coat all year round. It's like snow coming off of her. So short-haired dogs don't mean less shedding. Just so you know. 

Mary Stone  05:14

The burrs are seeds designed to fall off their fuzzy or feathered hosts as they move along. Critters eat the abundance of seeds inside fleshy fruits that make their way out the other end and are still viable to sprout. Then there are nuts seeds such as acorns, walnuts, and hickory that critters store for future meals and forget about them. Hence, the nuts become next year's saplings. Of course, the wind disperses some seeds. There are maple trees with their wings to seeds and milkweed, along with dandelions with seeds attached to those fuzzy thingies. I have a beautiful memory of Dear Mom, mischievously blowing dandelion seeds in defiance of those that consider these golden lawn guests weeds. You can eat all parts of the dandelion, after all. They're full of nutrition, more than kale and spinach, and the greens taste like arugula—another reason to forego chemicals on your lawn.

Mary Stone  06:10

We are all very much alike is a headline in the story. There's a trend for folks to send saliva samples for DNA testing to find their ancestry. It turns out we are all very much alike. I suppose the health history of our lineage may be helpful. But where we are rooted now is what matters. The most important thing is being rooted in the spirit of love. 

Mary Stone  06:33

Yes, indeed. I just love the story. I appreciate you listening again, for those of you who have been following the podcast from the beginning, because I did read the story in Episode 11. But there's more in that episode, for those of you that haven't listened in -- The Magic of Seeds, and so forth. It's a beautiful story. I will start my journey home, over an hour and a half away. But again, I thank you for sharing this time with me each week. 

Mary Stone  07:02

I am back on the screen porch. I just arrived home after the hour-and-a-half drive from Pine Bush. And that occurs to me. One of the other segments I didn't share is that Seeds is now sung at the Home for Hospice. It's often requested, and I think it's kind of neat how it's circled into my life since the beginning when I was introduced to it -- through the years --and how songs tend to live through us, you know. 

Mary Stone  07:34

And it occurs to me that we all carry seeds of opportunity to help our dear Earth and our communities and serve others. As we become aware of it, the roots of our spirits grow. And as we shine our light within, the seeds flourish and bloom, becoming a beautiful garden that others will admire, inspiring them to see the magnificent seeds within them. 

Mary Stone  07:57

Thank you for joining me again back on the screen porch. And I appreciate the emails you send and just sharing life together. It means so much. I hope you have a great, beautiful day. See you next time on the screen porch. 

Mary Stone  08:12

You can follow garden dilemmas on Facebook or online at Garden dilemmas.com and on Instagram at hashtag Mary Elaine stone. Garden dilemmas, delights, and discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch. And always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.