A cloud and a seed don’t sound like the same thing. I wonder if we sometimes act like they’re the same thing, assume they’re the same thing, pass them by as if they’re the same thing. I offer a gentle reminder to you that they are not the same thing.

Especially now as we live out the rhyming of our 2020 pandemic with the 1918-1920 pandemic.

I had a wonderful private meeting with a client of mine this week. I asked my client about the chaos and weariness of the pandemic (predicted in my session of “The Long Month Of October”). My question led at a deeper point—are you taking the time to look for the seeds of change that are quietly scattered all around us? The pandemic has blown them here. The pandemic has blown apart a lot of old ground cover to make way for them. The pandemic has blown up the barriers we assumed would always prevent us from the next big new thing. These seeds, I suggested, are those things that will take root, sprout, and blossom into longer-lasting changes once regarded as unthinkable.

Instinctively, my client answered with a fascinating description of looking for and finding things that serve as a “silver lining.” The inference, of course, is that the pandemic is the cloud and those things that provide you with resilience, endurance, and inspiration are the silver lining.

Hmmmm.

I accept the silver lining. Understand it. Absolutely. We all need the silver lining.

But I began to wonder about the staying power of a silver lining. Take the metaphor and look at it critically for a moment. The sunlight behind the cloud is what makes the edges appear bright, perhaps silver. This effect is temporary, an instant, here now and gone next. We appreciate the silver lining and then move on.

That’s not what I’m driving at or driving for with my reference to the seed. The seed, properly nurtured, grows. The sprout and shoot, properly tended, grows again. The blossom and flower and everything else about the plant, properly cared for, reaches maturity and full flourishing. You see where I’m going—there is time involved, stages and phases, an interaction with mutual gain and benefit. This is change that is real.

I want you to see and experience the silver lining to things, especially the pandemic. They are invaluable. I also want to see and experience the seeds, which will require a level of work and a dose of luck if the changes you perceive are to pass through all cycles of growth and function.

The silver lining of the clouds and the seeds of the plants. Know which one you’re seeing, which one you’re needing, which to sense and which to harvest.

And know if a silver lining can become a seed, and if a seed can serve as a silver lining. The chances are good, I think, that you may soon be in a situation where this pair of questions could prove useful.

Be well and thank you to my client for a stimulating discussion. All the best, Dan