As Tiny As Seeds

This speech was given by the Cygnet Seed Library Coordinator, Heather Macfarlane, at our launch party.

When I put my hand up to talk tonight, I wondered what I would say. Of course I would need to talk about how to use this seed library, I would need to tell you about when we meet and our website. But I wanted to also say something about why we chose a seed library as a project, why this group of seed library volunteers chose to focus our energy into this little box, something so tiny. Something seemingly so peripheral.

There is something magical about seeds. The seeds that many of you will go home with tonight, those same seeds that came from our gardens, were held in our hands and have been gifted to you. Those same seeds will grow food for your family, in your gardens, and those plants that you grow, they will produce thousands more seeds. More than you could ever need. And then you can hold them in your hands, and gift them onwards to nourish the families of others. That’s the thing about seeds, they create abundance, just by being themselves. They are so powerful because they can be given. They can be gifted.

And those seeds can be passed through this community, over and over again, moving through our gardens, nourishing our children and grandchildren, teaching us what it means to work together, teaching us what it means to nourish one another. Teaching us that we are all seeds and we are all tied to seeds and we are all in relationship with seeds and each other in this ever flowing ecosystem that is our community. It doesn’t matter what your opinions are, you can still grow seeds. You can still nourish your family with Dominique’s coriander, Ed and Trish’s silverbeet or Kate’s pumpkins. Food, the growing of it, the tending to it as it grows, the eating of it, the sharing of it… these things cross across all human cultures, across differences of opinions. They remind us of what we have in common, what matters to us all.

And one day, the great great great great great grandchildren of these seeds may sit in the hands of our grandchildren, or their children. And feed them and teach them what it means to give freely and trust in what it means to grow together.

And maybe those grandchildren will know these stories, of these seeds, who grew them or of tonight when we all knew that we were as tiny as seeds in the scheme of the world, but that seeds are so big and so small at the same time. The ultimate time travel machine, reaching through time, connecting us to each other, the future and the past, in the palm of our hand.