Sowing Seeds

New Beginnings

While many celebrate a new year in January, the later part of winter is still marked with inactivity and darkness. The seeds are still sleeping in the frozen soil, the days are short and the nights still long and demanding rest. January does not always feel like the beginning of something new but the continuation of a season of pause, rest, and waiting.

Personally, the year feels new when things grow again in spring. We seek to begin – relationships, work, eras of our personal lives. We celebrate freshness and renewal. The themes of spring’s natural movement are youth, clarity, expectation. And we reconcile ourselves to those natural elements with our own behavior.

It is in this time of beginnings that I want to begin this project. I call it the Goodwork Almanac because it will follow the cycles of the year. It may also become a commonplace book to sort odds and ends, a journal to record the most noteworthy events, a scrapbook to document memories as time passes. I do not rightly know what it will grow into, for now I am just sowing seeds.

There is no definitive separation between the end of one season and the beginning of another. They blend around their edges. Perhaps there is a day in March when the sun comes out, or when the dirt at the edge of the yard is exposed from the creeping edges of the snow that melts back. And you say to yourself, “Oh, it felt like spring just then.” We take walks into the garden to see what is returning – the hardy perennials peek out of the frost and snow.

Think of the “seeds” which you will plant in your life in this part of the year, the season of new beginnings. What thoughts will you allow to take root? What habits will you cultivate and what habits will you eradicate? The proverb says you will reap what you sow – the question asked of you by the very nature of spring is: what will you sow?

If you plant complacency, you will harvest mediocrity. If you plant focus and commitment, you will harvest many successes. This is not only the time to plant tomatoes, peppers, and herbs for the coming months but also the time to begin new practices, new habits, and fresh plans for the future.

What is the work that demands your attention? Are you meant for beekeeping, raising sheep, writing books? Are you here to help others through their darkness, create things out of wood and metal, or cook nourishing meals for a restaurant full of hungry people? Maybe you were meant to raise ducks, make cheese, draw cartoons, or push a broom. Only you can know, and only you can find your way to that path.

“You owe it to all of us to get on with what you’re good at.” – W.H. Auden

These posts will be a different kind of seed to spread. I want to discuss ideas, plans, techniques, and strategies to navigate this journey that we are on. I claim no professional status. I am a true amateur in all realms. By definition, an amateur is someone who does something for the love of it.

At the end of the day, I cannot say there is a best strategy or a single answer. All I can do, as a gardener, is spread seed and see what comes up. A certain seed may not sprout here, at this moment, because the conditions aren’t right. Another may view it as the perfect moment to leap forward.

We sometimes get caught in the mistake of thinking that life is something which happens, a mere event. But it is much more like a medium or a substance which we can explore, interact with, and develop. It is the raw material which we can use to create ourselves. The neglected field will grow just as much as the acre of carefully tended farmland – the difference is the effort and care exerted, the creation of a logical and measurable plan, the indulgence of a dream.

The perfect strategy is the one that works. The perfect moment is the one we have now. The perfect context for beginning is the one in which we are forced to start.

Most of all, these ideas I spread are ready for discussion and interaction. I think of the Goodwork Almanac as a forum for spreading beneficial ideas, useful thoughts, constructive discussion, and helpful stories that may inspire others to grow and move forward.

Planning and Patience

The early signs of spring are like a densely coiled seed which will eventually explode onto the scene with its usual clarity. First, it must be as small and undetectable as the first white roots in the soil, or the little ripple of light that moves out of the darkest months. The stirrings of life must begin somewhere, and they begin here.

These things do not happen all at once. The day you plant the seed is not the day you will harvest, but one must begin in order to get to that harvest day.

It is about humility. Accepting that beginnings are often ridiculous and inauspicious. “This little seedling is going to give me pounds and pounds of tomatoes?! Unlikely!” But it is true. Just as with other things: do not discount the ability of consistent growth and patient progress. (I view this as good advice in general but also a reminder to myself).

The key is to remember. Constantly remember that this is your life just as it is the seedling’s life, and it is passing by with gradual change and miniscule degrees. It is spring again. How much progress have you made since last spring? How much growth would you like to happen before the next spring? Do not commit the mistake of turning your attention away from this growth, just as you should not turn your attention from the care of your seedlings.

“The reward for our work is not what we get, but what we become.” – Paulo Coelho

There will be many distractions. It seems that daily life is riddled with things that demand our attention and drain us of the energy we would like to give to more important things. A few minutes here and there spent in a state of distraction and resignation will add up. It gains momentum as a habit of ‘tuning out’, of forgetting, and eventually it may steal days, weeks, or months per year of your life that could otherwise have gone toward fulfillment, beginnings, organization, connection.

These posts will also be about remembering the path we want to be on. I am not prescribing paths or espousing answers but merely saying “Hey, wake up, remember you have a path to take, a journey that is your own.”

I have been lost and would not wish that on others. I have wanted guidance and encouragement and have found only work to do. That is how we start. There are already too many voices that proclaim that life is meaningless, that there is no point, and that we should give up. Even if no one were saying this out loud, the annoying voices in our heads would still repeat this false idea. Part of the drive of this blog is to repeat the message that your life is yours to create, that it can be filled with meaningful action and work, that despair and hopelessness are not the answer, that we can still build a wonderful and powerful life together.

Practices and Meditations

Plant ten seeds in little pots of good soil. If you cannot do ten, do five. If not five, then one. If you do not want to keep them, sell them or give them to friends and family as gifts. But it is important to see them and to know them as they grow in this part of the season. Plant the other “seeds” of your life as well! Start a savings plan, start going on walks every day, start smiling and using people’s names when you greet them. Little things matter, they grow into big things.

Look for the first spark of color in the dirt, the first green tendrils resisting the cold, the first honeybee making its rounds. This is about paying attention. Time moves by quickly when we aren’t paying attention. If we cannot enjoy the little things in our lives, we most likely won’t enjoy the bigger moments either.

The garden is just dirt at the beginning. It is somewhat unremarkable. We have to be content with being unremarkable when we begin, so we may give ourselves room to grow. Delayed gratification is a muscle we must exercise, a skill to learn, not a natural trait. If you keep your attention on doing the work, you will look up one day and everything will be flourishing just as you intended.