The Three Times Planting

Hodja's stories frequently involve doing things three times, each iteration revealing different meanings. Applied to planting season, this suggests that actual seed-sowing represents only one type of planting. First planting occurs during previous autumn or winter, when farmers mentally design crops and imagine the year ahead—planting in imagination. Second planting happens at the literal moment of soil work and seed placement—planting in body and earth. Third planting continues through spring and early summer, as farmers tend, weed, and guide growth—planting through sustained attention and adjustment. This framework reveals that the calendar's "planting season" encompasses much more than the narrow window of actual sowing. It distributes planting's work across months of imagining, acting, and attending. Farmers who recognize these three plantings develop more sophisticated understanding of seasonal timing and understand planting not as single event but as extended process with psychological, physical, and relational dimensions.