Phototropism

At The Mass  recently, we celebrated the rebirth of Easter.
We each planted a sunflower seed – in the dark, a small seed that is hard to see, placed into some compost. Hidden from light.
Afterwards, we each took home a pot containing a sunflower seed that someone else had planted with the instruction to water it and place it in the light.

I’m not a great gardener – although I live close enough to a nature reserve that I can go and enjoy plant and animal life whenever I want to.

But this plant pot, placed on the kitchen window. Forgotten about – although I guess someone watered it a couple of times.

I had a busy time over Easter, concentrating so much on a musical production (The Passion 2012, thanks for asking) that life was just the shadows between performances. The seed didn’t care. It just got on with the business of converting cotyledons into leaves, food into tissue. The business of growth. It’s what it was designed for – a seed, dormant life waiting for the right conditions.

A couple of days I noticed. a plan was emerging from the compost. It wore the seed case like a hat – already so much bigger that the seed could contain.

Yesterday, I noticed the embrionic leaves were facing toward the window. I turned the pot around.

This morning, I give the plant some water – not too much. I turned the pot around because it had grown towards the window again.

It wants to grow towards the light. It can’t help it. Planted in darkness, nestled in the soil it exists as potential – but once it becomes aware of the light, it grows.

It is so simple, but in my life I find too many things get in the way – I shy away from the light, even though it gives me what I need to grow. I’m not afraid of the light – but unlike the sunflower, I find it too easy to be drawn to the darkness. But I think the sunflower has the right idea – and reminds me that whilst darkness may be comfortable and appear safe, it is in the light that we grow and develop.