The Seed

The man dug a small hole in the ground and in it placed a seed. For days and weeks he tended the seed - watering and fertilizing and weeding and loving. After a while the man started to tend to the seed less and less often and eventually he just gave up. The man hadn't known what kind of seed he'd planted. After all, he was no gardener. He'd assumed the seed would grow quickly and he'd be able to enjoy the fruit from the vine or the beauty of flowers. The seed was bad and was never going to grow.

While the man was away and after many, many months the seed did sprout.

The son of the man, a man himself now - a lifetime later - on a sunny, hot, windless, perfect summer day, sat down and leaned against the trunk of a tree, (he didn't know what kind of tree. After all, he was no arborist.) But he enjoyed the cool shade that the tree offered and appreciated how the leaves, tickled by breezes he could not detect, danced and shivered against the blue sky.

Don't ever ask "where should we plant seeds?" "What kind?" "For whom?" Rather, plant seeds, whatever kind you have, wherever you are and for whomever may come along.