Every year, faithfully and continuously, while we move, work and think, the cycle of life unfolds in the world of Plants. Flowers bloom in Spring, call out for fertilisation, spread their carpet in all their grace and beauty in order to attract pollinators... In Summer they lay upon the Earth the fruit of their EROS, in Autumn they are watered, and through Winter they wait within the soil. How does the fruit Dance within the earth? Like the human embryo, the plant embryo contains within itself all the information that will transform it into a mature adult plant. Each seed is protected from the environment by a hard, almost impenetrable covering called the pericarp, which was once the ovary of the flower. Within it lies the tender embryo and the endosperm, its storehouse of nutrients — we might call it a kind of placenta. This hard covering enclosing the embryo is not completely sealed. Upon its surface are pores or tiny openings through which water and air can enter, because, like every living thing, the seed, as an entity, breathes: it receives oxygen and “exhales” carbon dioxide. Until its leaves emerge and begin producing oxygen themselves. Nature knows exactly when the seed is ready to germinate — or to manifest — and until the proper moment arrives it remains in “dormancy”. The germination of a seed is not a random process. It is a finely orchestrated condition in which the seed absorbs and absorbs water until its hard covering swells so greatly that it bursts! The Gardener knows that the amount of water must be exactly right: too much causes the seed to suffocate, because oxygen can no longer circulate, while too little dries it out until it dies. Naturally, the Gardener must also maintain the ideal temperature: just enough to soften it... A lower temperature is not sufficient; one higher than the ideal will once again dry it out.
The breaking of the impermeability of the seed coat marks the beginning of germination. Yet here too there is a subtle detail. If the seed is buried too deeply, all the energy supplied by its store of nourishment will be consumed before the young shoot manages to reach the surface. Not all seeds of the same plant are identical. Some have a harder covering and require more water. Nor do they all germinate at the same time, since potentially they might otherwise all be destroyed at the same time.
Once the seed coat is broken, the root of the new plant appears first. It is the root that emerges first so that, from within the dark earth, it may draw the most precious thing of all — water — and then, through the shoot, rise toward the surface. What was once its shell decomposes in the soil and becomes the first nourishment of the new root: everything is used. Gradually the shoot grows, the “skin” of what was once the embryo falls away and is transformed into the first leaves. Nothing is wasted; it is a continuous process of transformation. Every fruit carries within itself the immense responsibility of becoming a tree.
As in Nature, so too in the Human Being, Everything is made with Art and subtlety.
There come moments when the human being searches, without clearly understanding it, for another kind of Fertilisation. Something burns within...
When, and if, one is fortunate enough to be struck by the arrows of EROS, then and only then can one Dance one’s own Dance — at times as a seed, at times as a tree. Perhaps then, like another seed, one may leave behind the hard outer covering in the hands of the skilful Gardener, who, with surgical delicacy, will guide one to unfold every leaf, one by one. And when at last one has germinated and the leaves have grown lush, certain that one has “reached the goal”, perhaps then one may begin to sense that, after all, it is the Journey itself that is called Life...