Spring marks the resurrection and the unfolding of all that is buried. It is the unfolding of pure potential, the manifestation of creative thought. Spring is creativity, that movement of life force into expression. Whether you think of yourself as creative or not, creativity is human nature, and the nature of all life. All of us are creating, all the time. As we place our attention on something, it moves into the field of existence. In the terms of quantum physics, it turns from a particle to a wave. It solidifies in form. It resurrects. Your attention, that is, your consciousness creates the Universe.
Consciousness in her freedom, brings about the attainment of the Universe. Sutra 1 of the Pratyabhijñã-hṛdayam, an 11th-century Sanskrit scripture recorded by the Kasmiri sage, Kṣemarāja.
In this lesson, I invite you to plant a seed with your child, and pay attention to it grow and bloom.
Activity 1: The story of Persephone
How does your attention create the world? In this Greek myth, Persephone lives in two worlds. She is loved deeply in both, the Earth world and the Underworld. Without her, both worlds go dormant, waiting for her to return. Her very presence creates the world. On Earth, her resurrection, a term meaning return to life, or return from the dead, brings Spring. In the Underworld, too, Hades (Pluto) waits for her to return, for his heart to beat again. Enjoy this read-along storybook video together, the story of Persephone retold by Lucy Pack and illustrated by Suvidha Mistry.
Activity 2: Plant a seed in Universal Mind
Deepak Chopra, in this recommended book, The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents, creates a daily practice for families for each day of the week based on the spiritual laws. Thursday’s practice is the law of Intention and Desire, written in simple terms as, “Every time you make a wish or want, you plant a seed.” For each law, he gives 3 simple activities. For this one, make a list of your wishes and wants. It can be a large wish, but remember this is only for one week. It is good to start small as a practice. This is not like a to-do list, although it can sometimes end up reading like one. The key is that you are not taking responsibility for the doing. The next step is to release these wants and desires, just as you would plant a seed in the Earth and expect it to grow. The seed does the growing itself. Although you may nurture it, you do not grow the seed. The last practice is to be aware and attentive, really notice when a wish or desire has been fulfilled.
We do this every Thursday in our family. After making a list, rolling it and tying it with a red string, we put it in a special place. The following Thursday, we open our list and read it together after dinner. Mostly, we have forgotten our wishes. More often than not, many have been fulfilled.
Activity 3: Send a seed
Practice releasing our wishes, or letting our thought seeds grow in the world, by creating a card with your child of flower or vegetable seeds to send to a friend.
Make Seed Paper
- To make seed paper, tear up paper recycling into small bits.
- Blend with 2 times water as paper to make a pulp.
- Remove from the blender and squeeze out the water.
- If desired, add a few drops of essential oil, like rose, geranium of lavender.
- Gently fold seeds into the pulp.
- Press into a sheet form on a towel, or screen. You may also press into a shape using a cookie cutter as a mold.
- Let dry.
- When dry, your child can write a note on the seed paper and mail it, or send it with a letter.
- The friend need only to bury the paper in soil and add water, sunlight and love.
If you don’t have seeds to share, simply help your child to send a letter to a friend (or a phone call). Letters are always wonderful to receive and the recipient feels the special gift that is offered: warmth of connection, attention and care. In the letter, ask the friend to send two more letters to two of their friends and have those friends do the same. There, you have now just planted a seed that will grow without you. Your child’s letter will start a chain that can spread warmth and life around the world. This activity is inspired by the book, The Smile that Went Around the World by Patrice Karst. It’s also a great companion read.
Activity 4: Be a seed
Create a felt story of a seed emerging, or of an egg hatching through movement. You and your child can create together your own series, or movements for this story. You can act as a narrator, while your child acts out the story. It may go something like this:
- “I am walking through the woods and what have I discovered! It is a seed deep in the soil!” (your child is the seed, and in the child’s pose position, or curled under a blanket)
- “How safe, snug and strong this seed looks. I wonder what kind of seed it is? It could be anything. I wonder if I watch it, it will grow.” (Kids take this as a cue to begin sprouting).
- “Seeds grow very, very slowly” (this will slow down your child’s movements)
- “Look at the beautiful baby seedling”
- “Look at its strong roots growing deeply into the Earth”
- “It is going up, up, up to reach the sun” (forward bend, chair pose)
- “I see the wind blowing, but the roots hold the seedling strongly to the Earth” (sways back and forth)
- “Look how tall it is now!” (stretched up into skyward pose, up to slight backbend)
- “It can really feel the sun. It’s branches and leaves are stretching out” (tree pose)
- “It can feel all the warmth and love from the sun. It feels so good” (standing backbend, on down on the knees this can be camel)
Just as Persephone rises each Spring, you may repeat this sequence in a flow again and again, as much as your child desires. The young child especially loves to be born again and again from an egg in the form of different animals, reenacting the endless cycle of birth and death.
Activity 5: Be the sun
Another approach with a child of any age, particularly one who is experiencing pain, trauma, or nightmares is to re-story their experience. This fun visualization technique, like Holographic Memory Resolution (HMR), uses an event to seed a new perspective and new reality, unlocking the healing power of the imagination and freeing the child from painful association.
To be the sun for your child, reframe the story in a fantastical way by creating together alternate realities of the story. Sometimes, when my child wakes up from a nightmare, I will tell them that the story wasn’t finished yet. I then finish the story for them. If your child is experiencing pain, create a story of the pain leaving their body. Perhaps you unlock it with a key or catch it in a net or help it to float away in a giant balloon. The pain can look down over the whole wide world. What does it feel up there high in the sky? A bully can be swallowed in a whale and blown through the spout then rescued by your child. You do not need to plan these visualizations, just trust in the story as it arises. Trust that it is the right one to authentically speak to your child in that moment. The healing plot lines are endless, and these new realities remind us too, in a very subtle, indirect way that all of our stories, even the “true” ones are self-created, that we each live in out own version of truth, which are all true, and that our stories have life only in our minds. Powerful indeed! For help and more depth on this topic, see the story source for my inspiration, The Ship that Needed No Water. I also suggest Nancy Mellon’s books, Storytelling with Children and Storytelling and the Art of the Imagination.
Activity 6: I am the light of my soul
Feel Persephone rising and live in Demeter’s joy and in the quickening ecstatic heartbeat of Hades. Feel the Christ spirit born again in you by allowing love to wash over you with this beautiful mantra, I am the light of my soul. It resurrects and reminds us of our enormous creative power and unlimited potential. Plant this powerful mantra in your child and watch it blossom in adulthood.
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