Technically, spring arrived in March, but it doesn’t feel like spring until the whole yard turns green, the daffodils are blooming, and there are buds on the maple trees. It helps if the sun is shining as well.

In these first days of REAL spring, I clean the flower pots from last year, add new drainage rocks and soil, review the seed packets and bulbs stored over the winter, and plan what to grow this year.

Each year I gently place small tiny seeds or bulbs into the soil, water the pots, arrange them on the sunny side of the deck, and expect beautiful flowers to emerge if I tend the soil appropriately.

Since the actual colorful blooms will not be apparent for months, tending the emerging plants while waiting for the flowers requires patience, and a certain trust that this plant will produce color if conditions are right.

Blooming is a natural cycle that takes time. I can change the timing by changing the conditions, but the flower will never appear first.

When the flowers are planted, I sit for a minute, close my eyes.  My face is warmed by the sun, my arms cooled by the slight breeze of late April.

I have been planting the seeds of Minute Mentastics every day for a long time. The soil is enriched by the daily practice of pause, observation and movement. In the most difficult times, Minute Mentastics meant recalling a better time or trusting that planted seeds would grow. Beautiful flowers of easy movement and relaxation have bloomed, faded, and produced new seeds for the next cycle.  I am even more aware of the intimate connection between body and mind, thought and action, feeling and movement.

I wonder, in this time of new beginnings and growth what will happen when I bring this awareness to my interactions with others?

Mentastics Minute:
Recall a time when you started a project, planted a seed, embarked on a journey. Sit with that memory for one minute with the question, Did I feel patient, trusting the eventual outcome? Did I feel wonder at the possibilities? Where are those feelings today? How would my body like to experience those feelings?

Find a flower pot, soil and seeds. Plant the seeds, tend the soil appropriately. Spend one minute a day practicing patience until the plant emerges, grows, and yields flowers, seeds, or fruit.

Spend one minute a day actively practicing patience with others around you by recalling a time when you had this feeling.