The Courage of the Seed

Easter Sunday photo of Todd's Red Oak, planted Feb 16, 2015

Mark Nepo's timing is uncanny. When he published The Book of Awakening 15 years ago, he knew that in the year 2015, Easter would fall on April 5th. He knew that this would be the first Easter after our Todd passed from this Earth. He somehow knew that we would have a special reason to trust in a sense of continuity--that today, especially, we would strain credulity just enough to believe in resurrection of the dead.

The red oak acorn I planted on what would have been Todd's 52nd birthday was a gift from caring colleagues. This morning, somewhat groggy from a sunrise service, I sat in my prayer chair and opened Nepo to the entry for April 5th. That is when those words he wrote 15+ years ago just for me, and just for that moment, finally hit home.

"All the buried seeds

crack open in the dark

the instant they surrender

to a process they can't see."

Never-mind that this is the 5th time I have read Nepo's book. The first four didn't count. The seed of meaning in those words could not crack open in my mind until I was ready to surrender reason and simply believe.

Happy Easter, Todd. We love you.