麻豆约拍

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good Morning.

I am currently attempting to grow a sunflower. As a teenager I got a mini cactus in my room because I didn鈥檛 trust myself with taking care of a standard houseplant. It turns out my bedroom must have been a harsher climate than the Sahara desert because I still struggled to keep it alive for very long. Therefore the simple challenge of growing a whole flower fills me with apprehension and excitement in equal measure.

It started with filling a pot with soil, sunflower seeds, and a bit more soil, then the instructions were to keep it moist at all times and wait. Rather than my teenage tactic of instantly forgetting this and hoping for the best, I have been topping it up with the misty-spray bottle obsessively - a daily act of faith and tenderness - all the time questioning if anything will come of it. Last week the first shoot broke through the surface of the soil. Every day since either a new shoot has broken through, or I have seen the small amount of progress the existing ones have made. My favourite part is how each emerges with the seed casing still attached, like a protective helmet as it bursts through into the wider world. A simple reminder of how far they have already come, as well as how far they have to go, so long as I can keep them alive until they go outside.

God thank you for the opportunity to grow each day. Thank you that no matter how small that growth may be, we wake up each morning with the chance to build on what has gone before. We pray today you would be with us and help us lean towards the light, and we attempt to unfurl some more of the potential that has been inside us all along. We thank you for the basics that keep us alive, may we nourish and nurture each other so they may grow into the best possible versions of themselves too.

Amen.