The Life of a Seed Tossed by the Wind.

The seed falls towards the earth from it's mother plant. The cold wind of fall picks it up and tosses it from rock to sand, from dirt to walls. It finally lands against a tiny crevasse in the foundation of an old house and slides deep down into the darkness. Snow soon follows falling to the earth and covering the tiny hole blocking out the sun. The tiny seed sleeps and dreams of what it might become when it awakens. When the spring comes, it melts the snow dripping cool refreshing water onto the tiny seed. The seed stirs from its slumber.. Sun peeks into the tiny hole and the seed, asleep for so very long, begins to waken and sprout.

The warming spring air, once more asserting itself, causes the seed to send sprouts of green slowly seeking through the moist darkness for light and heat of the sun. With moisture gained from the melting snow, the sprouts climb higher and higher, ever reaching and climbing.

Once through the opening, the shoots gain strength from the sunlight and wriggle through whatever obstacle stands in their way. Through tiny openings in the foundation, under wooden frames and into the cracked wooden sides of windows the shoots slowly maneuver. All through the summer months the shoots wriggle. They grow in size and length, determined to show that they are stronger than even the house under which their roots lay.

The cold begins once more, slowly, subtly. The vines that have survived despite the huge obstacles placed before them now slow down their seeking. As the cold grows, the sap in the vines sink back to the place of its origin to rest. The fall winds remind them that life must sleep to be strong. The cold wind enters the narrow hole occasionally until the snow finally covers it with a blanket of white.

Winter, though cold and harsh, might not reach the seed's roots where they lay deep in the ground. The roots are actually protected by the obstacle they had fought all summer as they struggled to grow. They were protected during last winter and once more as the cold increases. Life or death remains in limbo until the winter winds die down and the snow begins to melt once more.

As before, the sun warms the ground causing it to thaw. The dormant, life giving sap begins to run through vines that had dried and withered in the cold of winter. The sap gains strength as the sun adds more warmth to the vines. New shoots replace those that had died. Once more life moves from the roots inside the wall to the vines. They grow stronger and once more begin to encircle the house under which their roots reside. With renewed energy, the vines shoot into open air allowing the wind to move them and twist them in the hopes of grabbing onto a new surface. Slowly the vines grow, working their way to the free open sky and the vast store of sunlight that resides there. If one is very very patient, one might just see the tips of the vines dancing for joy in the bright sunlight as they grow ever longer.

The vines grow strong through the summer. Strong and vibrant, they push and shove against whatever might be in their way. They crawl under the siding. They twist into the walls. They squirm their way back out through the upper window frame. They gather the sun through the window. They are ever seeking, ever reaching, ever stretching for that sunlight and freedom. With freedom, they seek for more items on which to crawl. More things to use as a holding medium. More ways to grow their bright flowers and entice the bees to pollinate before fall comes to whisk away the seeds and slow the sap, once more putting the roots into a long winter sleep.

Years have passed and the vine, once a tiny seed blown about by the wind, now waves its arms proudly above the roof of the house where it has taken residence. Its shoots have twisted and crawled their way into and out of the very house itself seeking the life giving rays of the sun. The flowers bob and dance in the gentle wind of summer and ride out the warm summer storms. Though the cold of the winter still freezes the sap within the vines causing sleep for many weeks, the sun brings out a vibrant, living beauty that sways in the spring breezes and brings about green leaves and bright flowers for the summer enjoyment of all who see it. When the cold wind of fall touches the vines, their own seeds are released. They are bounced and blown in the wind until they, by chance, find a safe place to sleep out the winter, and begin a new life in the spring.