Sowing the Seeds of Peace 10 years later

I started a garden this spring, determined to learn how to grow my own food. I needed a lot of help, did a lot of reading and talking to gardeners and it struck me how much a seed depends on so many factors to grow and thrive. Then I started thinking about the peace and justice movement and wondering why IT isn’t growing and thriving.

HOW CAN THIS BE, when the steady drenching rain of tears forces our seed to germinate and break through the surface to grow towards the sun of truth and justice?

HOW CAN THIS BE, when the slow dripping irrigation of the blood of our kids and innocent civilians all over the world draws our roots down deeper and stronger into the soil of anger?

HOW CAN THIS BE, when the ravaged compost of dead children’s bodies enriches the ground of our rage?

HOW CAN THIS BE, when the winds of economic hurricane batter us and force us to strengthen both our roots and our resolve?

HOW CAN THIS BE, when the sunlight of the true human cost of these “wars” energizes us to grow new branches and produce ripe fruit full of new seeds?

HOW CAN THIS BE?

We are those seeds. We are and always have been the seeds of peace. We have everything we need to grow strong and propagate our message. This is our time; the ground is fertile with rage, death and despair. When spiny thorns and insidious roots of weeds of derision and dissent try to crowd out our vitality, we fight back and grow stronger. This is the ground where peacemakers grow. This is where we will prevail, propagate and bear the fruit of peace. This day, this hour, this minute is our season to plant and grow. We must not wilt, we must not wither, we must not succumb to the weeds of despair. This is a harvest we cannot afford to lose. Plant your roots deep in the soil of anger, spread your branches wide to the truth, throw your seeds onto the winds of the apathetic and the ignorant and multiply the message of peace a thousand times. We must spread the peace, one seed at a time. This is a harvest we cannot afford to lose.