A few days ago, a package arrived in the post all the way from Oregon. The sender - the darling @sagescrub - joined me on an experiment to see if seeds would make it through Aussie customs. Before you get all border police on me, these are all seeds that I've seen grow here in Australia, so it wasn't as if I was smuggling in cane toads or prickly pear or foxes (thanks early settlers). Receiving the package felt like Christmas when I was a kid. It just felt unexpected and exciting, pulling out mullein, yellow yarrow, dandelions (yes, I have them growing in my garden already, but I wanted ones from Oregon), and a plethora of other seeds that I'll sow come Spring. 'Seeds of Abundance' indeed - born from having plenty, and being willing to give away to make someone elses life abundant.

But the seeds were more than just a physical thing. They had the power to make my heart melt. They reminded me of the kindness of people. Of Steemfolk. @sagescrub didn't expect payment for them, or praise, or even me to begin this steempost about it. It was a generosity that sprung from love - love of what he does on the land with the plants, but also loving to help people and connect them, to give them something that might be lacking in their lives - money, time, advice, social connections. That love sprung out of the package like glitter. He'd thought about what I wanted and spent time putting the package together and sending it over, no strings attached.

It's what I love so much about Steemit. I see it all the time here. I have since I started.

I saw it when someone died and a Steemian needed money to get to the funeral - people simply gave, without the need for contracts or promises that it would return. I saw it when someone's marriage failed, and the generosity of kind comments and offers of assistance flew about a Discord chat. I saw it when someone's son was suffering a lung problem, and how everyone rushed in with love, fellow feeling and offers of advice or alternative treatments. I saw it when a traveller was ill prepared for an adventure and needed some extra steem to see him through. And I continue to see it daily - with kind words, with offers of support, with small delegations to minnows, daily upvotes and smiles.

For all the bitching and moaning about failures of this platform, it sure has the potential to bring people together.

And I'm not being corny about this, or writing it as some platitudes to get an upvote. Don't be cynical. This is genuinely how I feel about this place. Maybe I just choose to look at the good bits. I see what gets done. It's why I powered up a little bit more on SPUD day (Steem Power up Day on May 1 - did you power up? Not too late!) - because this place is genuinely worth it.

@lopzdaniel this week has put out a plea for support for the Venuzuelan community and I was so moved that @richardcrill immediately resteemed this post and asked us all in @freedomtribe to do what we could. And many of us have already. Whilst @lopzdaniel might be suprised and humbled by it, it seems us Steemians are pretty good at generosity born from compassion. All one has to do is ask and someone will reach out and help, because we care.

Perhaps we've understood that it makes us a little lighter. There's always someone worse off than us, and even if there's not, we know that by letting go a little of what we have to give to someone else, we let go of the things that bind us to the earth and make us suffer as we cling so - our identities, our fortunes, our time - all the things we think make us , but actually only enrich us when we let them go.

'Generosity is act activity that loosens us up. By offering whatever we can - a dollar, a flower, a word of encouragement - we are training in letting go' - Pema Chodron

It's also a testament to the power of community here. Many of us are in one we love, or even a few. We hang out for words of support, to learn, to share and to grow. Sure, we love an upvote. But we love the communities more, and what they offer - and we soon realise the power of offering something in return - a beautiful reciprocity of time, kind words, steem, advice, wisdom - and sometimes even gifts in the post. Steem manages to bring people together far more than any social media I have known or ever heard about. Maybe I see it more because I'm involved in a few incredibly generous communities, or help run @naturalmedicine, which has a particular set of kind and generous people I've got to know really well. And I've just come out of meditation session in Mindful Life, part of @naturalmedicine which brings meditators together to share energy in a meditative space, and a good dose of humour too.

@justineh has asked Steemians to write about their vision for Steem. I'm still musing on it. Oh, I'm excited about tokens, and the geeky stuff is cool, though I don't understand it most of the time. And I can't see how Steem might fail given the community effort that goes into creating incredible Dapps and other functions that make this a pretty great experience, once you wrap your head around it. But I'm not very good at that academic side of steemit - most crypto talk is beyond me, and I still couldn't explain to you how the curation reward pool actually works (well, I almost can). So when I think about my vision for steem, I just think: more of the same, please. More kindness. More generosity. More love. More community.