Once upon a time, a tiny seed lay buried deep in the earth.

It was dark where it rested — heavy, silent, and still.
Sometimes the rains came so hard the soil around it turned to mud.
Sometimes the winds above tore at the ground, rattling the very space where the seed slept.
Some days, it seemed easier to stay hidden. To stay small. To give up.

But something inside the seed stirred.
A whisper.
A pull.
A feeling that, even though it had never seen the sun, there must be more than the darkness it knew.

So the seed began to reach.

Slowly. Painfully. Inch by inch.
It pushed against the heavy weight of the world above it, straining toward something it could not see.
No one watched.
No one cheered.
The seed struggled alone.

Days turned into weeks.
Weeks into months.

At times, the seed doubted. Was it foolish to hope?
At times, the earth grew so cold it almost forgot why it had begun.
Still, it reached.

And then, one morning, after so many silent battles fought in the dark, the seed broke through the surface.

For the first time, it felt the warmth of the sun on its fragile green shoot.
For the first time, it saw the sky stretching wide above it.
It had made it.

But the journey wasn’t over.
The storms still came. The winds still howled.
Yet each season, the seed grew stronger.
Roots sank deep. Branches stretched high.

Years passed, and the tiny seed became a mighty tree — one so strong it could shelter the birds, so steady it could withstand the fiercest storms, so beautiful that travelers would stop and stand in awe.

And none of it would have happened without those first hidden struggles, without the choice to keep reaching in the dark.

Sometimes, the greatest growth happens when no one is watching.
Sometimes, the most important victories are the quietest ones.

So if you feel buried, lost, unseen — remember the seed.
Keep reaching.
Keep pushing.
Even when it’s hard.
Especially when it’s hard.

Because one day, the world will see what persistence has made of you.
And it will be beautiful.

Ed Aimé, MSW, LMSW