How to Grow Happiness by Doing Very Little
One seed at a time
It’s a pea!
“Free pots for education!" said the kid, sitting on the floor, in the street, next to a basket filled with cups and soil. It was 10 am in Columbia Road Flower Market, London. A brisky sunny day in September or October. The perfume of flowers and coffee were filling the streets. Some families were passing by, spilling drinks and snacks on the floor. Dogs and birds were tasting bits here and there. Real delicacies.
“Sorry what is this?” asked a woman detached from a group of five with two other kids. She was from the neighborhood and never heard a kid saying “free pots for education" on a Sunday morning at the flower market. Her question was legitimate and she wasn’t the first one to ask it.
The kid simply answered “It’s free pots for education". He reached a small bag hidden in his basket, took two small green pebbles out of it, put them in a cup, on top of the soil, and offered the pot to her saying “It’s a pea!".
The power of seeds
Seeds are amazing. They encapsulate in a tiny volume a huge potential — becoming a future flower, plant or tree. A shield protects them from flames, acidity and predators. However, if you take care of seeds, they will reveal what they hide inside. A healthy plant will give you back thousands of new seeds. Life is magic and seeds are a heritage of history, a gift of Nature and symbol of biodiversity. So why would you not grow and cultivate happiness from seeds?
Reconnect with local food
You’d be surprised how kids are affected by this. Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do, especially in the inner city. Plus you get strawberries. Ron Finley. TED Talk. 2013.
Sharing and growing seeds can teach us a lot about life and the food we eat. When the kid asks adults if they ever tried to grow a pea, often they say “No, never tried. I’m bad at gardening”. Seeds can inspire curiosity and help overcome our prejudice. It’s a simple way to reconnect with food, its origins and magic properties. It’s also a way to take our health and lives back, as defended by Kokopelli for years now.
Reconnect with local people
It was cool and they just shared their stories about how this affected them and how they used to plant with their mother and their grandmother and it was just cool to see how this changed them, if it was only for that one moment. Ron Finley. TED Talk. 2013.
Sharing seeds, giving people the joy, the pride and the honor in growing your own food, can help us reconnect with each other and with what we eat. Food, culture and education could help the world build long lasting and healthy relationships, one seed at a time. Plants and flowers simply make people happy. Try it yourself!
Reconnect with seasons
The word revolution originally suggested the idea of coming back to an initial position. The revolution of Earth around the sun takes 365 days and is responsible for variation in weather and seasons on Earth. Life has periodic patterns. Cherry blossoms (sakura in japanese) occur for a few days, every year, more or less at the same time. Humans celebrate the cycles of life. We gather together for birthdays, religious, social and cultural events. Sharing seeds can help us reconnect with cyclic and sustainable ways of living. A blue and green revolution.
