“The Future’s Not Ours to See”
Last week, as I pressed tiny seeds into small pots of soil on my kitchen table, a line from that old song, "Que Sera, Sera" looped through my mind: "The future's not ours to see." (Sometimes my mind gives me little hints to help me out!)
I get so exuberant in the spring for my garden. Here we are, on the brink of big seasonal change, and I can't help but get electrified about the coming year. Excitement certainly is, well, exciting, and I can't know for certain what will happen this year in the garden.
Will there be a bumper crop of napa cabbage, or will the bright green cabbage worms feast on the deliciously crunchy sweet leaves? In the same way, you may be certain that the changes we have been seeing in this country and with the climate portend certain doom. But we can't know the future, and conditions are changing all of the time.
Some changes we can see coming, and some we really have no idea about. For example, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 shocked the world. It was largely not predicted and caught world leaders, intelligence agencies, and citizens by surprise! It was brought about in part from pressure from mostly non-violent protests! I think there are other examples too, probably more than I even know about. Nelson Mandela walked free after 27 years in prison. Marriage equality became law in the United States. Diseases like AIDS are no longer fatal. The list could go on and on. History reminds us that change is rarely linear and often unpredictable.
It is life-affirming to plant seeds both literally and metaphorically. Last week I planted some cool-weather crops like the napa cabbage, peas, lettuce, and broccoli. (Plus a bunch of flowers too!) Into my life, I sow seeds of love and "can't-know-the-future-mind."
What have you been planting recently? I guess another way to ask that would be, what is important to you? To quote Bad Bunny (lol—I didn't even know who he was until last week when Joe told me to watch the Super Bowl halftime show), “Hatred becomes more powerful with more hate; the only thing that is more powerful than hate is love, so please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love; we don’t hate them, we love our people, our family, and that’s the way to do it. With love, please don't forget this.”
The future is made by what we do now, today, like right now. It might seem like you can't do much on your own. I feel that way too sometimes, but then I remember that in the garden, I can't make the flower bloom on my own, but I can plant the seed and nurture it with care. When the conditions are ripe, the sweet peas will release their potent fragrance into the world. Together we can change the world—one moment at a time.
The marquee at the Super Bowl halftime show said it well and echoed the words of the Buddha, "The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
What are you planting? (I mean that as a metaphor!) The future may not be ours to see—but this moment is ours to tend.