With all that’s going on in our world, could your soul use a boost of endurance? I invite you to consider Texas bluebonnet seeds for a lesson in endurance.
My side gig as “South Austin Bluebonnet Seed Robin Hood” continues apace. With seeds harvested from public spots of bluebonnet abundance and seeds purchased, I spread the little pebbles out every late September, near my home, to places in need of spring color.
This spring there’s not much to show for my stealth. Perhaps, like me, you’ve been looking in vain for more bluebonnets. They’re sparse this year. Central Texas did not receive sufficient rain from mid-October to January, and the result is a dearth of blue blooms.
Bluebonnets are annuals, meaning that their little sprouts — in the fall, after rains — come forth from seeds on a cyclical basis. If you’ve ever held a bluebonnet seed in your hands, perhaps you’ve wondered how in the world such a beautiful plant can come from a seed masquerading as a pebble. Bluebonnet seeds are literally little rocks. Which means that they can endure through more than one or two seasons of drought. The thousands of seeds I distributed last year that didn’t sprout because of the lack of rain? They’ll have another chance at sprouting next year or the year after because they’ve been engineered for endurance.
In contrast, poppy and tomato seeds are small and delicate, built for only one season. Other seeds, when properly stored in a controlled environment, can last a few seasons. Even so, their germination rates fall as they age. Bluebonnet seeds, on the other hand, endure and spring to action when the time becomes right — even if a few years down the road.
Many of us can use an extra shot of endurance right now. Hard-fought civil rights, including voting rights, are at risk; wars and violence rage as if they are age-old human infirmities that can’t be eradicated.
Endurance is more than “hanging in there.” Endurance is maintaining one’s place, like a solid rock, in the face of troubling adversity. Endurance is strengthened by community and communal actions. Many of us are on the same path — fighting for common good and decency during this time of societal drought brought on by cruelty, greed, and an unabashed lust for power and control.
Occasionally, you’ll see a solitary blooming bluebonnet, but more often you’ll see bunches and clusters of them. There is power in numbers, and strength in togetherness.
We trust that it will rain again this winter, and we know that the values of love, compassion and peace-making are not going away anytime soon. They will endure as long as those of us who cherish them continue to practice them.
Endure, my friends, for your rock-solid hope in humanity’s better angels is the power that allows them to flourish, especially during times like these.
T. Carlos “Tim” Anderson is a pastor and director of Austin City Lutherans, a nonprofit service organization that operates a food pantry and provides furniture and household items for people exiting homelessness, austincitylutherans.org.