30. Seeds

When I was in school, I used to write poems. The poems generally were just a lot of rhyming lines put together without much of an agenda, posibly to impress people around me 😀. Like once I wrote a poem about bathing.

One of my teachers found the notebook of my poems, in my bag and she loved it. Or pretended very well so as to encourage me. I had also sent some of them to be published in the local newspaper under the kids section.

Then as I grew older; I moved away from poems and got interested in studies. Much to the relief of my parents. I did fairly good through school and college and landed a very good job after completing my engineering.

And one fine day - poems came back to me. I started writing on the office bulletin boards and people loved them. In fact I would get my own poems as forwards. It was quite a rush when that happened. I also started blogging and writing short stories. I really enjoyed them.

Then once again, I became busier with work and life in general - writing took a back seat. And years went by without any regular writing.

So much so that whenever I’d bring myself to the writing table - it would be a struggle to write what I wanted to write. I thought my writing days are behind me. Every once in a while there would be an inspired poem or a blog post but that was it.

We turn a page when we are in our late thirties. I did too. And looking at the general negativity in the media and people around me, I thought what could I offer here to get everyone to calm down, look inwards and get away from the chaos ?

What could I do so that people can be inspired to spend five minutes with their soul?

I used to write and people seemed to love it and engage with it. Could I write something inspiring or deep that makes us look inward and spend some time with our thoughts? I thought that could be useful & my friends agreed.

I started collecting things that would inspire me to write.

I realized all the photos I took over the years had their stories to tell - in fact when I captured some of them they seem to tell a story.

Additionally, I started reading and pondering on quotes that I personally liked. And started putting them together with those photos. In the process, rediscovered my opinions about those quotes and my own pictures. I truly started looking inwards myself.

And then the magic happened. The writer’s block was gone. I was writing fluently again!

I had a purpose - Making people help find five minutes for their soul.

And that brings me to today’s quote.

Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout.

The quote is attributed to Morihei Ueshiba, who was a Japanese martial artist and founder of the martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as “the founder” or “Great Teacher”.

And now for the picture behind the quote:

A Chinese bamboo takes 5 years to break the ground, you have to keep watering it for that long. But when it does come out - it grows 90 feet in first 5 weeks.

The ideas that lie deep in your heart and soul are similar. They take time to germinate. They are there and we have to keep looking inward for them. water them.

I pictured this bamboo sprout right outside my apartment complex, this may not be the same variety but nevertheless a sprout.

Anyways, which seeds are waiting to sprout in your heart?

We have to recognize them and water them.

Thanks for reading through!

Please share it with someone who needs it.

-Nikhil