Scattered Seeds and New Beginnings

These past few weeks I've been fascinated by the variety of seed shapes and seed carriers I've found in the prairie plantings on campus.

Perhaps that's why my attention was caught by Parker Palmer's seasonal metaphor in A Hidden Wholeness, his book about his work with circles of trust. Usually when I think of new beginnings and seeds, I think of spring. But Palmer begins with fall when he develops a seasonal cycle as a metaphor for what happens in the inner journey of discovery.

"We often start our groups in the fall, a time when work begins again for many people, following a summer break--and nature begins her work again by dropping and scattering seeds. In this season of new beginnings, a circle of trust might inquire into the 'seed of true self.' What seed was planted when you or I arrived on earth with our identities intact? How can we recall and reclaim those birthright gifts and potentials?"  p. 81

Here's a few photos of seeds about to be dropped and scattered, for you to muse on as you ponder your own seeds and new beginnings.