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Seeds

April 16, 2025

hand holding seeds

I paid a dime for a package of seeds
And the clerk tossed them out with a flip.
“We’ve got ‘em assorted for every man’s needs,”
He said with a smile on his lip.“
Pansies and poppies and asters and peas!
Ten cents a package and pick as you please!” 

Now seeds are just dimes to the man in the store
And dimes are the things he needs;
And I’ve been to buy them in seasons before,
But have thought of them merely as seeds.
But it flashed through my mind as I took them this time“
You have purchased a miracle here for a dime!” 

“You’ve a dime’s worth of power no man can create,
You’ve a dime’s worth of life in your hand!
You’ve a dime’s worth of mystery, destiny, fate,
Which the wisest cannot understand.
In this bright little package, now isn’t it odd?
You’ve a dime’s worth of something known only to God. 

—Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)


Leigh shared the wonderful poem by Guest with me. As long as I’ve been gardening I’ll never get over the wonder of planting a seed that in turn produces many vegetables to feed us. The same is true for a single flower seed that gives a bounty of blooms to lift one’s sprits.

Then there’s the miracle of each plant started from a seed providing more seeds to start the whole process over!

This page says Guest was born in England but immigrated to the US. Merle Haggard was often called the poet of the common man. Guest was called the poet of the people. It has been said he penned over 11,000 poems.

Last night’s video: Dogwoods Are Blooming So We Planted Beets.

Tipper

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Blogging about Appalachia since 2008

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63 Comments

  2. God bless you friends and thank you for saying happy birthday to me, some of my comments got mixed up, I’m not technology friendly,

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  4. Happy Birthday, Norman!! I hope your day is extra special & filled with many blessings. You said your friend lives in Tupelo, MS-I live in Columbus, MS which is about 50 minutes from Tupelo. Hope you receive something special from your Mississippi friend. Tipper, I’ve grown veggies in large pots for the past 3 years because of YOU! I’m 73 now & it goes to show you, it’s never too late. Do you know if pollen would be considered seeds? While sitting outside each Spring I marvel that the trees & plants produce pollen to keep their species going, which is wonderful. But while I’m marveling, I am sneezing, blowing my nose and having to put allergy drops in my eyes & take allergy medication. I’m very allergic to pollen but yet I cannot bring myself to stay in the house because I love to look at nature as it is happening around me. Too bad schools do not teach the little ones about nature & encourage them to explore & appreciate all these wonderful & awesome things around them. Tipper, I have learned a lot from Pap, Granny, Miss Cindy & you through your videos. Wouldn’t Pap & Miss Cindy be surprised to know that their wisdom is being spread to thousands of people all over the world?

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      1. Pollen is the male part of the plant. It had to land on the female part of the flower in order for a viable seed to form.

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  6. What a beautiful poem! It’s amazing what joy one little seed can bring. A simple thing, but so miraculous!

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  7. Tipper, I love your enthusiasm with gardening! My late husband and I gardened every year and since he passed 6 years ago, I still do a much reduced garden. I miss his expertise and excitement, but I remember lots of what he did because I was right beside him. He would tell me every year how truly amazing it was to have one tiny cucumber seed grow into so many cucumbers we were giving them hand over fist to neighbors and family! Same for all the other seeds we planted. What a great hobby gardening is!! May God bless us all and any garden we are planting!

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  8. Thanks for the poem Tipper! Just like the seeds we plant in our gardens, so too we see the miracle of life from conception to when we complete our own cycle; and in looking around we can see all creation is a miracle. God works in marvelous, magnificent and miraculous ways His wonders for us to behold.

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  9. I grew up with a book of Edgar Albert Guest poetry and spent many happy hours reading and reciting. Thanks for bringing this memory to mind 🙂

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  10. Ditto to Gaylia greens comment. Sadly I don’t know yall in person but having watched your videos and reading this blog I’d swear we are related. I grew up in the Deep South and so many of your ways are just like my people. I know without a doubt that if I ever got stranded anywhere with a group of folks I’d want it to be with the Wilson/Presley gang. So genuine, humble, and sincere and I’d never go hungry Lol

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  12. You and Mr. Guest remind me how Jesus spoke so simply about everyday things yet also so truly He left nothing out. His words are, as He said himself, seeds that in good ground produce goodness for more goodness. I remember “It Takes a Heap of Living”. Though written about a single house, it would remain true if rewritten from ” house” to “place”. And as to critics, they often don’t know as much as they think they do.

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  13. It is rather miraculous how one little seed has the potential to germinate and grow into a plant that can produce food for our bodies or beautiful flowers to feed our souls. Then in turn produce more seeds. The wonders of nature.

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  15. It “blows my mind” when I think of the many things that start from a small seed. The giant oak tree started from a small acorn which to me is a seed. I know of a preacher that preaches a sermon about life from the time we are born to the time we die. He starts with comparing our birth to a seed. I especially like Gaylia Green’s comment this morning. It says many of the things I feel but am unable to put into words.

    For Carol B, in my comment yesterday I answered your question about my wife’s favorite flower.

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    2. Thanks, Randy! Don’t know how I missed your comment yesterday!!! Well I like purple too. I should have no trouble finding something to fill that bill! I like to grow something new (to me) every year. I will enjoy this. I know you’ve had such a trying time, especially this week.

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    3. Ok, Randy, one more thing about sadness then I’ll move on, but the mentions of poems reminded me of this short one I came across after my dad passed nearly 36 years ago!

      I walked a mile with pleasure
      She chattered all the way,
      But left me none the wiser
      For all she had to say.

      I walked a mile with Sorrow
      And ne’er a word said she;
      But oh, the things I learned from her
      When sorrow walked with me!

      Robert Browning Hamilton

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  16. Tipper, your words are often in my head these days- “seeds just want to grow.” That makes it harder for me to understand why just ONE nasturtium came up in the planter when I sowed about 10 seeds. I kept eager watch for any other little green shoots but there is still just a single nasturtium plant growing on my back porch. So, on Monday I planted my ginger scented geranium with that lonely nasturtium and I hope they’ll be happy together. I had about given up on the Good Mother Stallard beans our 3 year old granddaughter planted (yes, too early but Stuart can’t be slowed down or stopped once he starts gardening each Spring) but yesterday I saw one bean shoot is up about an inch so I have hopes that there will be more to come.

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  17. I enjoyed your video last evening and watching you and Matt planting your little miracles— otherwise known as seeds. My grandchildren are coming to hang out today, and I plan on getting their help to plant some flower seeds I saved from last year. They love to help. We are also going to color and paint Easter eggs. It will be a fun day. We don’t hide and hunt the real ones—We always eat them. I loved this poem too. Happy birthday to Norman!

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  18. Years ago a Pastor friend of my family said something I still remember. He said you can count the number of seeds in an apple but you can’t count the number of apples in a seed. I thought this was the most simple way to describe the awesome greatness of God. Happy Easter to the Blind Pig Family

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  19. Happy Birthday to everybody born in April, a friend from tupelo Mississippi said I have a surprise coming between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. today, I’m 64 years old today praise God the Lord has let me live this long

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    9. Happy birthday Norman! Pray you will have a wonderful day! Both my children were born in April and also one grandson, so April has always been a special month for me.

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  20. Thanks for posting that poem, Tipper. It’s a good one. I’d forgotten Edgar Guest. Literature teachers have put him down, but his poems really do speak to the “common people.” Many are appropriate for funerals, such as A Child of Mine. “It Couldn’t Be Done” may be familiar to many of us older folks from school days. I remember boys who took “Expression” classes (anyone remember those? They’d learn to present poems at school programs with exaggerated expressions) would often recite his poems. When I just now looked up some of his more familiar poems, I came across Lemon Pie. That’s a sweet one (pun intended). He’s the writer of “It takes a heap of living to make a house a home.”

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  21. Tipper you know where the Bible says we are to be like little children (I think it means as far as our just no doubting belief in The Father as well as other things I wont go into) I see that childlike faith and wonder in you in all your videos and posts and no simpler example is the way you look at seeds (seeds of any kind–even seeds of faith) your wonderment of them and knowing they want to thrive and survive if just given the chance and that chance is just as simple as giving them a little dirt…..isnt it funny that they need a little dirt on them to enable the miracle of growth in them (evidence of what The Father can do for us even if or even when we are covered in dirt–He can make us grow into something beautiful and useful. love to you all, especially love hugs and prayers of comfort for Granny–tell her if pain starts, not to be stoic about it but I pray The Lord ease any pain she may have….oh how I would love to know her personally and the more stories I hear about Ms Cindy the more I realize she is one more person that my life would have been better for having known…..your dad had so much wisdom that you share but your mother in law certainly had tons of wisdom also-just different type than the wisdom of your father (figuring out how to make makeup and all the way to being able to know in her spirit when something was not right) All that to say you and Matt both come from great people and it is continuing down through the generations…what a blessing for you but especially for all of those lives you and your family touch through YouTube.

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    1. Gaylia Green – I 100% feel the same way with what you wrote about this family – only you put it all into words – thank you for doing so. We all are being blessed with each blog and video.

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