Diane Wilson > Quotes

“Some seeds need fire to sprout. What if you’re that seed?”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“In this world there is no death. There is only the eternal cycle of birth and rebirth moving from one body to another. Our flesh lives in the belly of a deer, in the wing of a butterfly, in every seed you plant. Our bodies nourish the roots and leaves that keep us alive. When you care for the seeds, you care for all of our ancestors. Nothing is lost. Nothing is lost.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“Maybe we all carry that instinct to return home, to the horizon line that formed us, to the place where we first knew the world. Maybe it was that instinct driving me now.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“You wouldn’t recognize this land back then. Over thousands of years, the plants and animals worked with wind and fire until the land was covered in a sea of grass that was home to many relatives. The bison gave us everything, from thadó, our meat, to our clothing and thípi hides. His dung fertilized the soil. The prairie dogs opened up tunnels that brought air and water deep into the earth. Grasses that were as tall as a man set long roots that could withstand drought. When my grandfather was a boy, he woke each morning to the song of the meadowlark. The prairie showed us for many generations how to live and work together as one family. “And then the settlers came with their plows and destroyed the prairie in a single lifetime,” my father said. What I remember most, now, is his voice shaking with rage, his tobacco-stained fingers trembling as they held a hand-rolled cigarette, the way he drew smoke deep into his lungs.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“Everywhere I looked, I saw how seeds were holding the world together. They planted forests, covered meadows with wildflowers, sprouted in the cracks of sidewalks, or lay dormant until the long-awaited moment came, signaled by fire or rain or warmth. They filled the produce aisle in grocery stores. Seeds breathed and spoke in a language all their own. Each one was a miniature time capsule, capturing years of stories in its tender flesh. How ignorant I felt compared to the brilliance contained in a single seed.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.’ Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“Each seed was made of an embryo, a seed coat, and something nutritious, almost like a packed lunch. The Mother Plant, like me, wanted only the best for her babies. Some plants, like dandelions, scattered their seeds in the wind, while others, like some pines, needed fire to open their cones. Somehow, the Mother knew to dry her seeds almost completely so they would sleep until the time was right to wake. Each seed held a trace of life that would spark when given water, when given the appropriate conditions.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“if you can learn to come on quiet feet, and to listen, then you will never be without friends.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“He said forgetting was easy. It’s the remembering that wears you down.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“History might have cost me my family and my language, but I was reclaiming a relationship with the earth, water, stars, and seeds that was thousands of years old.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“As activist and scholar Harley Eagle once said, “We need to fall back in love with the earth.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“You have to heal yourself first before you can go out and change the world.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“I could sit there drinking coffee, or I could follow Darlene’s advice that there was still time to do better.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper

“He watched with the hunger of a man who believes that success comes with owning the right machine.”
― Diane Wilson, The Seed Keeper