OMG! I've Grown a Tomato!

Photo courtesy appalationseeds.com

Every spring, the avid gardeners among us - a group to which I definitely don't belong - rush out to the local garden shop to load up on seeds. Dreams of a lush garden dancing in the twinkle of their eyes. They come home with their packages ready to begin the work of unleashing those seeds' potential.

Now, I don't know about you, but those dried out, little particles in the seed packets look dead to me. Even plantphys.info says that if you took them to a laboratory and ran tests to measure biological process on those seeds, you would have a hard time getting any readings that showed signs of life. So how is it that these Sleeping Beauties can produce such wonderful things like tomatoes? How is it that they hold so much untapped potential?

I have to admit anything about unleashing potential automatically peeks my interest. So I put on my researcher hat and started digging. I learned how mother nature - sometimes with the gardener's help and sometimes without - makes this magic happen.

Seeds are either in a dormant or semi-dormant state until something comes along and triggers germination. Some seeds need light to start the process. Others require moisture. While some are even more complex. If the conditions aren't right germination can't start. If the conditions change unfavorably, a plant may not achieve its full potential.

Some seeds have chemical inhibitors that block or delay germination. Until those chemicals work themselves out of the seed's system, all the perfect conditions in the world won't shift that seed from potential to fruit.

Once the conditions are right; the inhibitors gone, the transformation can begin. A process that requires some pretty significant change. First the seed has to swell with moisture. This activates the necessary enzymes and causes the skin of the seed to crack so that the first root can break through into the soil. Next a shoot grows up to the surface where it can bask in the nurturing light of the sun. The dried out seed is no more, replaced by a plant start.

Our lives are often like those dried seeds. Sometimes it's hard to imagine the potential we hold. Those

Photo courtesy hgtv.com

around us may question it. We might even doubt it. Yet it still exists.

Just like those seeds, we require the right conditions in order to flourish. Sometimes our attitudes and our paradigms inhibit our growth. We may have to let go of our preconceived ideas of how things should be and what our lives should look like so that we can grow roots and sprouts that will nourish and support us.

Yet when we open ourselves to the possess; when we surrender to change and trust - magic will happen. And you too will shout, "OMG! I've grown a tomato!"

#potential, #transformation, #change