Breaking ground May 14, 2020By Robyn Barberry Filed Under: Blog, Unconditional We planted fifty seeds and Within a few days, the carrots peeked through in wispy green threads, Followed by the gentle emergence of newborn basil leaves The soil seemingly uninformed and undisturbed as nature took its time to take its course Until… One morning we awoke to find An eruption had occurred in one of the pods, A clump of saturated soil no larger than an ice cube Jutting outward and upward A chunk of earth elevated By a force yet to be seen Like a bowl of leavened dough for bread Like a granite outcropping alongside the highway Or tectonic plates shifting continents, one under the other Below the surface One tiny squash seed Felt so much pressure that Rather than easing into a piquant sprout like its neighbors It would be a rocket A rebel A force to be reckoned with Something powerful inside that seed had made up its mind Deep inside To push its way through with all its might Uninhibited Unstoppable Unnoticed Until… (Almost) unexpectedly A hearty, curvy stem and leaf presented itself victorious before the rubble it had created As if to proclaim its will To break free To grow To thrive To fulfil its purpose To become Print