Last week I spoke with a friend on the phone as she was out in her garden plucking seeds from this summer’s dead flowers, just to get a head start on next spring’s planting season. She’s a seed-saver. I realize there are some professional seed-savers who not only save a diverse range of seeds, but also save them in protected storage areas where they will remain safe should our bio-diversity dwindle even more than it has already.

What I like about these seed-savers is their sense of hope in the future. They believe in life’s potential. Fruits and vegetables are natural seed-savers. Having a ready supply of seeds to begin a new season of growth seems to me the height of responsible living.

All this brings me to those special seeds of insight and awareness that we have collected as we live each day. Some people collect these “seeds” by writing them in a journal. Others speak with trusted friends about them. Still others have artistic skills and so they compose songs or poetry, paintings or sculptures that embody those precious seeds of knowing what they value in life. When we know what we value, what is important to us, we can more easily align our values with what God is calling us to do with our lives.

May you treasure all the seeds you save,

Sister Tarianne

PS – to learn a more about how Adrian Dominican Sisters and Co-workers have worked with seeds for the future, visit our Permaculture website.

There is a famous question, “If you were charged with being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” In other words, does the way you live your life really reflect what you claim you believe and value? Most of us fall short, but in general, we can recognize if we are muddling along in the direction toward what we hold sacred and true or away from it.

For Dominicans, we might come at it in a slightly different way. How does your life preach? What does the way you live proclaim to the world? We are members of the Order of Preachers, after all. Dominican houses were and are called “Houses of the Holy Preaching.” That doesn’t mean we sit around listening to homilies and reflections. It means we strive to recognize that what we do – how we treat each other, how we live together, how we reach out to others – is a way of preaching Christ’s Gospel.

How do I preach with my life? What do I preach with my life? Does my life say what I want it to be saying? Does my life align with God’s desires for me? Asking these questions can help us figure out if we are on the right path and can help us discern the forks in the road.

Ultimately God’s desire for our lives and our deepest desires are united. But it takes a while to understand and accept those deepest desires within us.

Take some time this week to ask God to show you how you do already preach with your life and, perhaps, to show you new ways you may be called!

Blessings,
Sr. Lorraine