EVERYTHING SOWN IS HOPEFUL

~ Sennen Powell ~

At the end of the Cretaceous period ~66million years ago a catastrophic asteroid impact brought us into our current geological era: the Cenozoic. Widespread firestorms, disruption to Earth’s processes, and ecosystem collapse in the aftermath rendered much of the land on earth uninhabitable…

However, those organisms who had placed their faith into the soil were the ones which were most successful after. Birds are thought to have survived so well because the smaller and more ground-dwelling species didn’t need much energy, and are speculated to have been burying their eggs just beneath the soil for their chicks to hatch on their own. At the same time, flowering plants widely diversified because of their practice of burying their seeds and their rapid growth, which also fed the birds as the forests recovered.

These are important lessons for our current times. That even in the most apocalyptic and destructive moments, humus was able to keep safe those pieces of themselves these organisms had sown into the ground and brought them through to something new.

So now we should do the same; any new relationship, kind gesture, or creative thought that we sow into our present should be taken care of with the knowledge of their importance and potential.

This includes bringing physical resources back into the community as much as possible. Every inch of community owned land, of flooding resilience, devolution of energy to localities, time for rest, and fairer living for workers; these are a seed sown or an egg buried.

The outlook feels catastrophic, yet we don’t know if it will be; we shouldn’t walk hopelessly into the fire, but constantly put down good seed. We have no idea what it will feed or what it will birth.

Sow with intention, imagination and hope even in the face of total annihilation. Just like the birds and the flowers did.