Mushrooms in Alan's Yard, Druid Hills, Atlanta, October 2009
One of the things I love about flowers is how sometimes they seem to bloom overnight and how they seem to gain a papable energy and force from drawing up nutrients and moisture to grow.
I saw these mushrooms in the yard of the home of my friend Alan from Future Thinking and they looked to me like flowers.
(And like flowers, I love the diversity of shapes and types of fungi. I am always pausing on woodland walks to notice how cool fungi can be.)
I know very little about mushrooms.
(Then again, I don't know much about flowers, either, scientifically speaking.)
So I went trolling on Wikipedia for more on mushrooms and was reminded of the terms "to mushroom" and "mushrooming."
My life of late has felt like a mushrooming, as I absorb all that's going on — finding a rental property for us to live in .... being present to my mom's healing journey (which I would call bumpy this week — a fall out of bed, a lot of mental agitation and no improvements in her lungs) ... beginning to navigate the longer-term issues of insurance and care for my mom ... being away from our home for more than two weeks with trips to Ohio and Atlanta ... and ... and ... well, you get the picture.
Let's just say there has been a lot of, um, mushrooming.
Sometimes I feel full of grace, possibilities and trust. I can feel my being mushroom-expand into that full space.
And sometimes I feel bloated with the sogginess of fear, worry and overwhelm.
What I take from the mushroom is to bring consciousness to what nourishing thoughts I want to feed on.
And while the diet of fear might be familiar to me, I can see the possibility of mushrooming with trust as I make these transitions.