05/14/2026
🌱 The Red Lucky Seeds That Taught Me About Legacy
A few days before my brother Luis passed away, someone handed me a small handful of seeds picked from a tree in Puerto Rico for me. I tucked them away, not yet knowing their name or meaning.
They are Adenanthera pavonina – commonly called Red Lucky Seeds, Coral Wood seeds, or in Puerto Rico, peronías or coralitos. 🇵🇷
Here's what makes them extraordinary:
🔴 Uniform weight – About 4 seeds = 1 gram. Historically used to weigh gold. Precision in nature.
🔴 Bright & durable – Used in jewelry, mandalas, beadwork. Small, but they last.
🔴 Toxic when raw – but edible when cooked. A reminder that even beautiful things require care and preparation.
🔴 Nitrogen-fixing tree – It enriches the soil. It gives back to the earth that holds it.
Depending on where you're from in the Caribbean, you might hear them called palo de mato, peonía extranjera, coralillo, or árbol del coral.
I never imagined these tiny seeds would become a metaphor for the days that followed.
In therapy sessions, the word seeds kept surfacing. And then at Luis's wake, I found myself describing his life exactly that way:
🌱 He planted so many seeds in people.
💧 He watered them vigorously.
🌸 They bloomed – even if he couldn't always see the flowers.
That's the quiet tragedy and the quiet miracle of a life like his. And that's the power every single one of us holds.
🤜 💥🤛
We are all planting seeds daily.🌸
In a kind word. A patient silence. A moment of showing up. A laugh shared at a repass with bamboo earrings and bad attitude. 🥰🎧
We don't always get to see what grows from what we give. But something does grow. In someone else's heart. In a community. Across generations.
Luis taught me – even in his leaving – that the most important work isn't the harvest. It's the planting.
So here's my invitation to you, as a therapist and as a grieving sister:
What seeds are you planting today?
In your kids. Your clients. Your neighbors. Your own healing journey.
They don't have to be big. A single seed – uniform in weight, bright as a coral bead – can one day become a tree that feeds the soil for decades.
Thank you, Luis. Thank you, Blue 🐶🪽. Thank you, Mami Teresa.
Rest together. And watch what grows. 🕊️🐾🪴
🌸🐶🪽🐾
If you're reading this and you're struggling to believe your seeds matter – they do. Keep planting. And if you need support along the way, my virtual door is always open. 💛Newbritain Ct
