By Nina Concepcion
This pain that’s resounding
In my heart it’s drowning
A thorn of redemption
caught in high tension,
with the woman I am and the woman I know I should be.
Why when your love is cascading
I feel like I’m fading?
Far from the shore that I thought promised more
This seed of doubt’s growing
It’s knowing and blowing
but hell if I’m going
to the place I just mentioned
and despite all the failure
The part where I wail here
I’ll toss it off lightly, embrace and despite me
Because I…I know the truth.
In this coldness is boldness,
a river flowing down
Feel the …

By Elaine Tsui
Every year, one of the more popular fashion and beauty magazines parks a “makeover” trailer somewhere on the streets of Manhattan. They then proceed to grab gleeful young women off the sidewalk, whisking them into the trailer for an hour or two, where they then emerge fabulously gorgeous–complete with a new hairstyle, makeup, and spring fashion trend.
I admit that I was always envious of these lucky people and hoped that one day I’d accidentally walk into the vicinity of one of these “glam-mobiles” and be …

Poem by Bianca vanderMuelen
What words will I put on today? A glimmer-
gray accessory of cheap hellos, or white-angelic lights
strung like teeth across my neck so pearly white,
to complement the color of sophistication?
Perhaps an eye-blue satin jacket, tailored well
to hug the form of me, and hold me when I twist
and turn. I could dig up, dust off
old glass-gold slippers, in which I used to wobble
up and down the bedroom floor—practicing,
you know. But those don’t fit me anymore.
I touch my tongue to my lips, and my face blooms
pink as I wonder my …

In February, Seed members gleefully escaped the city and trekked to Pennsylvania to learn the key to daily spiritual survival: relying on the Holy Spirit. The overnight retreated reminded us that it is He that fills, nourishes, guides and enables us to accomplish all that we must each day.
Experiencing the quenching taste of the Holy Spirit only exposes the parched condition of our lives. Too often we feel dry, empty and directionless. News of natural disasters, current and imminent conflicts around the world, unending schoolwork, strained relationships and personal problems …

Dear Seed Reader:
You definitely have described the perception that many people have of the One God Christians worship. But, I would challenge you to actually read those primary sources (the Old and New Testaments). They paint a very different picture of God. For example, the people God deals with in the Old Testament stories are disobedient and rebellious time and time again. Yet, their God, Yahweh, forgives and restores them over and over. After studying other ancient civilizations in graduate school, I found that the …

Dear Seed Reader:
Well, I think that a life lived “doing nothing but praying, day and night, waiting for God to do something” might be quite an exciting adventure of a life! Imagine what new thoughts God would grant to you, and what insight you would have! I believe that this may be the call for many of the cloistered brothers and sisters, who spend their lives waiting in prayer before God. Have you had any experiences where you prayed, waited on God, and found that He answered you? …

Dear Seed Reader:
Well, I guess the question “why do we need God” supersedes the first presumption (“If we have morals . . . “). My question back to you is, “What do you want out of life?” If you are satisfied with whatever “morals and good life” that you can imagine, and then act them out TOTALLY, then, perhaps you don’t “need” God. But, I have yet to meet someone who sticks totally to his or her own sense of morality and “good.” Even an anarchist …