Belief in Planting – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” – John Muir

As I dug deeply down to tuck you in safely, one by one, in softness, grounded for growth with care and wishes for your survival. (Awareness of my lack of qualifications and experience crowded into the activity like a boisterous neighbor who wasn’t invited. “This won’t work. You don’t know what you’re doing.”)

As I put my shovel away, I am thinking about internal resistance. My resistance to planting, to bothering with placing all of you in the earth. My head saying, “You’re doing it wrong. You will be disappointed.” My heart replying, “Let’s try. I need to wonder.”

Now I am pondering, curious actually, what would it be like to live without a belief in planting. Realizing I already know. I have been there and don’t want to go back.

I am seeding a future I cannot see. I am planting hope in the dark cold of winter. This includes garlic cloves and my belief in loving action to grow the next. Stepping into the unknowable with a curious heart that knows it doesn’t always work out and planting it anyway.

Later that day I found three more cloves in my pocket. Three that escaped planting day. Their potential is not lost. I will find time to tuck them to bed too.

Cover them with leaves.

© Ali Grimshaw 2024

Thank you Stephanie Matlock for nurturing my inner farmer and gifting me garlic to plant. You are the Garlic Master! Cobblestone Farms, LLC.

21 thoughts on “Belief in Planting – Poem by Ali Grimshaw”

  5. Beautifully done Ali!

    From “Crowded Table” by the Highwomen:

    If we want a garden
    We’re gonna have to sow the seeds
    Plant a little happiness
    Let the roots run deep
    If it’s love that we give
    Then it’s love that we reap
    If we want a garden
    We’re gonna have to sow the seeds

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  6. I am seeding a future I cannot see. I am planting hope in the dark cold of winter….

    Stepping into the unknowable with a curious heart that knows it doesn’t always work out and planting it anyway.

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  8. A beautiful metaphor for life Ali and when we listen to our hearts and not our heads and old beliefs! We do know what to do, and this opens us to the miracles and the abundance of all life. Happy planting 🌿🌈🌿

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  9. Really enjoyed this: Stepping into the unknowable with a curious heart that knows it doesn’t always work out and planting it anyway.

    Just to keep planting kindness & love…whatever the outcome is!

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  10. I love this, Ali. I feel as if I was witnessing the conversation (it is a familiar one to me) and I’m delighted that you kept going. You planted and trusted. What a lovely example of what we can do in many aspects of our lives…every single day. 🙏🏻💜

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