Spring is potent for many. Shake open a little packet, seeds tumbling out, signals a powerful metaphor in gardening: an act of hope. Within each neat package lies a new life and a season or more of careful nurturing. With this comes joy and pride from ‘success’, or conversely, wistful learning from ‘failure’. This seems high stakes in therapeutic work, and it is, so by preparing the ground for these stakes we can be readied. But that is many moons away. For now, so many hopes hang on this little dry brown bomb in the crease of a hand.

Hope can be the fuel for driving much change and growth in a gardener’s life. With it comes a sense that something different might be possible – change is around the corner. Even if the gardener cannot control the vicissitudes of their life, they can make changes in the tiny seed’s new life. Care for a tender seedling also reinforces the need for self-care, and treating self as if a tender, tiny plant needing protection from the Spring squalls. And time spent sowing seeds is a meditative act, where some of the most delicate conversations are shared. Greenhouses are chapels to tenderness. Seek out seed sowing, alone or with others, it is a profoundly transformative act.