From The Everything Seed by Carole Martignacco, illustrated by Joy Troyer, (Berkeley, California: Tricycle Press, 2006). Used with permission. Carole Martignacco is a poet, singer, grandmother, and former RE director. A Unitarian Universalist minister, she currently serves as minister to the UUestrie, a congregation in Quebec's Eastern Townships, and as president of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers of Canada.

We highly recommend buying the picture book "The Everything Seed," by Carole Martignacco with gorgeous batik illustrations by Joy Troyer, available from the UUA bookstore.

Have you ever watched

a seed grow?

Have you ever noticed

how it begins

so small,

so still,

so quiet,

like a gift wanting to be opened...

and how slowly

it wakes up,

begins to unfold,

growing

into something

larger...

and larger ...

and LARGER?

Then you know

that whatever

comes from a seed

usually ends up

looking very little like

the seed it came from...

which is also true

of the very first

seed.

Once, long, long ago,

way back before the beginning...

so long ago

there was no such thing

as time, because

there was no one there

to count it...

Everywhere was

a huge

deep

mysterious

place,

like something

waiting to happen.

There were no stars,

no Sun or Moon.

There was no place like Earth...

not a drop of water,

or a single tree,

or rock

or flower...

and no living beings anywhere.

But in that deep

waiting space

was hidden

the tiniest point

of something

no bigger than

a seed.

(Leader: Hold up a seed.)

It was not

a flower seed.

It was not an elm tree seed.

It was not a seed of corn,

although all those things

were included in the seed.

You might call it

an Everything Seed

because that

is what it became.

No one knows where that first seed came from,

or how it was planted,

or how it knew (in the way that only

seeds seem to know) how long to wait

for just the right moment

to sprout and grow.

But all at once, this tiny seed,

cradled and nourished

in the rich soil of space,

woke up,

broke open,

and began

to unfold.

Unfolding ...

Unfolding ...

and blossoming forth...

into an enormous blazing

ball of bright light...

like a great

Grandmother Sun.

And the Universe was born.

Out fluttered

the galaxies,

like a storm of snowflakes

swirling...

and gathering

into the brightest,

most blindingly beautiful

clouds of stars.

And out of those starclouds

whirled our own star,

the one we call the Sun...

and our Earth

and our Moon...

and all

the round spinning planets

we have learned how to name.

And this is

the secret of

that tiny seed:

You and I

were there

in the very beginning...

just as the idea

for each leaf

on a big oak tree

lies hidden inside an acorn

(Leader: If you have an acorn, hold it up.)

We were there

with all

the stars

and planets,

all the rocks

and oceans,

plants

and animals,

and people.

Everything

that is now,

ever was,

or ever

will be

was inside

that first

tiny seed.

So, whenever

you hold a seed

in your hand

and wonder

what it could become

imagine how you,

and all that is here,

once came from

the tiniest speck

of an Everything Seed

before it sprouted

and grew

long, long ago

in the way-back

beginning of time.

Now, if this

were an ordinary story,

it would end right here.

But this story of the Universe

keeps unfolding.

What once began

in a blazing blossom of light

continues every day.

New stars sprout open

in the deep soil

of space.

New plants and animals

appear on the Earth.

Seeds of many kinds...

are scattered

everywhere...

to help us remember.

And new people

are born

every day

with the spark

of that first light

still alive

and burning

deep inside...

Waiting...

like

the Everything Seed,

to shine

in ways

that are yet

to be known.