ARTICLES: fertile ground
Articles by Penelope Brackett

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KNOW AND SOW YOURSELF LIKE A SEED February 1998 It's a New Year's trick to put you… in a panic over all that you haven't done/been in all the past years' combined. Right in the middle of signing up for that new year's resolution belly dancing class you remember your low scores on the junior high fitness test (I still flinch recalling those pull-ups.) Your pen runs out of ink and there's not another one in sight. We are so ready to make sweeping judgments about who we are not. We love to point to the withered branches, evidence of our sabotage. Hell, where are the tall trees of our past, evidence of our courage. Where is the seed of our future? I don't remember which year I started signing off my letters with "Sow Yourself Like A Seed", but I do remember walking around New York mouthing the words, (The great thing about New York is everyone talks to themselves, so no one notices), to Miquel de Unamuno's poem, "Sow Yourself Like A Seed." It helped me to make those 500 phone calls when I started coaching. It reminded me to keep offering my gifts. I would never know where a garden would spring up and in the act of sowing I would discover myself. This year, contemplating new ventures including polishing my professional standards, expanding my client base, adding three more business builders, an Actors' in Action Class, and articles by and about my work, as well as considering house yearnings, more children, and when I would fit in Tibet... I started thinking those absolutes... I've never had/never done/never imagined consequently never will have that much self, relationship, money, space, fun...

And a seed sprouted. I remembered I had had/done/imagined it all in one form or another. I had taken a risk, spoken the truth, made the call, walked in the door, ... Even before I had a child I had mothered. Even before I would own a house, I had made a home. And even before I wrote a word of this article, I had other articles to let me know I could do it again. And then I knew what my first article since Kazden's birth would be about... Know yourself like a seed. Know that within you is the seed of who you want to grow into. You have experienced it all long ago, and now all you have to do is transfer those skills or take them to a new level. (The challenges you took on in your first year of life were remarkable.) We are so ready to make sweeping judgments about who we are not. We love to point to the withered branches, evidence of our sabotage. Hell, where are the tall trees of our past, evidence of our courage. Where is the seed of our future? My suggestion: Find another pen. Sign up for the bellydancing class. Hell, although I flunked the junior high fitness test, I did manage to dance until I was 6 months pregnant, swim for the next 3 months, go through 36 hours of labor and now I'm hauling a 20 pound baby around with relative ease. Often, when we get comfortable with what was once a challenge, we forget what it took to get there. The more acknowledgement we give ourselves, the easier it is to take on new challenges. A client said to me, "I can't save money." I said, "Have you ever saved money for something you wanted?" Of course the answer was, "Yes." You can save money when the objective is interesting enough. It's not inability, but intention. Another client talked about a new job challenge verses comfort at the current job. Looking at the journey (It wasn't always this easy) leading to her current comfort opened up her faith in handling this new job. So, don't be tricked out of your New Year's goals. Make sure first that you're taking on your goals (not your mother's friend's, or someone you saw on Charlie Rose) and then see the seed of that goal as already growing inside you. Start your business or take it to a new level, plant your herb garden on the windowsill or bigger than Martha's, design a birthday card or a city park. Now is not the time for comparisons, but for planting. Begin by acknowledging ALL of who you are. Sow yourself like a seed. BACK TO ARTICLES PAGE BACK TO TOP Home | About The Creative Seed | Services | Articles Creative Seed Network | Client Resources | Newsletter | Contact TheCreativeSeed.com 973-762-5871 | info@thecreativeseed.com All material copyright 2001 by Penelope Brackett. Site design by James Donegan. Photos by Jacquelyn Prussing 718.420.1334 jagunjac@aol.com Site development by Mark E. Lang, TBEdesign.com, NYC.