Seeds Remember Light
why faith matters and the circularity of life
Dandelion seeds are stars about to leap
into the breath of destiny.
Wind is the carrier, light is the guide and earth, the fate.
Eventually the stars will fall.
But because seeds remember the light.
They always return.
We are about to take the leap. End of May we leave the Netherlands.
While approaching the edge, faith seems to be joining us.
Recently, during a morning walk, my father asked “ You don’t have much faith, do you Raquel?”. Intrigued by his assumption I realized that I never had so much faith in my life, as now. But why faith and does it matter at all?
Questions like these direct my gaze into nature.
What I see are dandelions. Everywhere now, dandelions can be found. In the meadows. The woods. The sidewalk. A crack in the pavement. One thing has become certain over the years: dandelions always return. Dandelion’s resilience it’s outstanding. And for me, it points towards the terrain underlaying my questions: the potency of life that is always here, waiting for the right conditions to return and flourish.
It points to circularity as a self-fulfilling expression of nature.
Life has its sprouting,
death has its return,
beginning and end follow
one another in an unbroken cycle,
and no one knows when they will cease.
Zhuang Zi
Life begets life. Life wants life to continue.
Maybe this is what faith can be.
To trust in the force of life that is imminent and ever-becoming. And to act from this trust.
In this way, faith truly only begins with action. How do we know that our actions are rooted in such way of trusting?
Because what we do, should facilitate the expression of life.
I believe that in this way, we can realize our true purpose as humans.
That is, and only can be, to amplify life. Not otherwise.
Our decision to move to Portugal, has had and still does have, moments of great fear and distrust.
But it was faith that has led us to purchase land.
I knew it was right, from the moment I lay down in the stones.
At the back of the house, I could finally relax. And at the same time, feel into a promising uplifting joy.
It was faith that inspired us in implementing the right conditions for life to thrive in this place, that we now call of Quinta do Bem Haja. More about the name here:
This conditions include the ecological restoration of the stone buildings.
Clearing loads of brambles. Planting some trees and bushes. Pruning. Harvesting the olives. Learning about and creating water retention beds in the land.
I travelled south, to visit the Orchard of Flavours , an edible botanical garden located in Tavira. My friend and agronomic engineer Lucas Oliveira, is co-developing this beautiful and bountiful project. With him, among many other things, I learned about the half-moon beds on slopes, to help with water retention. Perfect for our place. Me and Amber already made our first half-moon bed in the land. Or better, retrieved part of an old one, that we happened to discover after a full day of bramble removal around a fig tree. We added the stones and carefully built the cup-shape: it’s beautiful yes, and saves water as well. Double-win!
For me it’s faith at work that makes all the difference.
It’s in the sense that something is right because is life-giving. And it’s, specially when facing hard work and all kind of obstacles, in the crucial difference between going-on and giving-up.
Like dandelion seeds, faith helps us to remember the light.
And so, we go-on.
You are at the beginning of a dandelion's odyssey.