We are three close friends who have shared a psychotherapy practice in Chapel Hill, NC, for many years. We have also enjoyed a variety of common interests and passions.

Mary Brantley (right) is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She is a long-time meditator and an instructor in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program at the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine in Durham, NC.

Gai Seybolt (middle) is a psychiatric nurse. Over a 45-year career she has held a variety of clinical, education, and consultation positions. Retired from teaching, she maintains a limited counseling practice. She is an omnivorous reader of fiction, biography and myth.

Becca Elliott has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. She has published many articles on gardening in the South as well as two books on spiritual growth. She is a licensed pilot and something of a computer geek. She and her husband Jim, with expertise provided by her brother Richard, created this web site.

All three of us are “mad keen gardeners” (Christopher Lloyd’s wonderful phrase) and in addition to planning and developing our own patches, we have taken many garden trips and nursery expeditions together. Becca once owned a delightful nursery featuring native plants and unique, hard-to-find (at that time) perennials.

Throughout our friendship we have found our spiritual growth energized and nurtured by common study and practice and well as by sharing our individual and unique paths. Seeds of Kindness has allowed us to extend many of the skills and interests inherent in these longtime pursuits in a new and exciting direction. The elements of personal growth, new learning, eliciting design and meaning from disparate and intriguing pieces, seeking underlying symbolism, celebrating individuality, stimulating and supporting creativity -- all these are themes in our lives and our careers that grow richer with diverse methods of expression. Seeds of Kindness gives us a fulfilling way to explore within ourselves and to offer into the world some of what we learn.

These are Gail’s words: A story usually has a beginning, a middle and an end. The history of these loving kindness beads seems more like a story that has gone on for a long time and one that I stepped into unknowingly.

There are some events that I can trace about that entry. During a period of spiritual dryness I had turned to loving-kindness meditation directed toward myself and my stuck place. I found that the gentle phrases (may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be peaceful, may I be safe) did help in calming my spirit and renewing my compassion.

Not long after, I casually went into a shop that had a small counter of beads and became mesmerized by their beauty. It was a moment out of time. With no clear idea of what I would do with them, I quickly made a package of the irresistible ones. As I played with these, arranging and rearranging patterns, I developed a riveting attachment to these bits of stone and glass.

Soon Eleanor Wiley and Maggie Oman Shannon’s book A String and a Prayer came into my hand; reading about their experiences in making prayer beads sent deep sounding within me. Simultaneously, I discovered several old malas made of bone and jade that I kept by my side, fingering and dreaming.

A number of stories were shared with me at that time -- a friend with a difficult and painful illness, a relative’s best friend diagnosed with a rapidly fatal cancer, a special birthday, the birth of a grandchild. All at once these events coalesced. I could make a string of beads in the form of loving-kindness meditation -- one bead for each wish with harmonizing support beads and amulets. With every bead, I spoke one of the phrases for the benefit of the recipient, infusing the gift with compassion and goodwill. I sent off the strings to my friends and was deeply touched and humbled by their profound responses.

I was struck by a sentence in Rachel Naomi Remen’s book My Grandfather’s Blessing. She wrote, “Most of us have been given many more blessings than we have received.” With the creation of these bead strings I was able to be exactly conscious of what I was giving, and the responses told me that the recipients were almost always equally aware of what they received. The physical manifestation of inward knowledge and compassion passes the blessing along with a tremendous charge.

Mary and Becca were early recipients of loving-kindness strands and soon began to make and give their own. As we spoke of the deep gifts we all experienced in making them and the reciprocity with which they were received, we decided that we wanted to put this energy out into the world. We have organized Seeds of Kindness knowing that seeds sown in fertile ground grow and bear fruit. May all beings reap the benefit of our sowing.