Flowering Fridays: Preparing for Blooms

Easter lily bought on sale at Home Depot this week

This is how this week back from our vacation has been for me: feeling like there is no time to stop and smell the flowers.

I know it's just my mindset that says I'm too busy, that I'm behind, that there isn't enough time.

But it's the story I've been living in this week as I settle back into home (errands, email catch up, buying and researching replacements for the vacuum and washer and dryer which both broke, the car into the mechanic to replace a broken hose, a day of illness for my daughter (and a slight un-ease for me, too)…

(Sheesh. I'm overwhelmed just reading my account of it!)

So here it is Saturday morning. There was no Flowering Friday on Friday for me this week, a week when I felt there wasn't much time for anything. Be it yoga, meditation, adequate sleep, or kind connection with my husband.

So today I'm going to pause and make some time to garden on this beautiful 70-degree day.

My perennials are all sprouting. Some like the daffodils are already blooming. And others — the day lilies, the iris, poppy, phlox and many more — are preparing to bloom.

My task this morning is to clean away all the dead leaves and stalks from last year. To clean it all away and make way for these new blooms.

As I work this morning, my intention is to also to clean away this old way of poverty thinking about time. This old way of thinking that incessantly says that what I do isn't enough.

I want to weed out all these thoughts that deaden me. These thoughts that berate me for the 500 emails in my inbox this week. For the lack of blogging and Twittering. For not working on my new project at all. For not getting everything off my "To Do" list.

Because really there was much that happened this week.

Even some wonderfully fun things: A day of process painting with friends (more on that soon). A plant-buying spree at Home Depot. Dinner with my brother and Grace. Using our wonderful new LG front loading washer-dryer set. A new haircut. Some new lovely frocks from Anthropologie.

And much more.

The fact is that I got done what I chose to do this week. And I am trusting that is enough.

So today I'm preparing new soil, and making way for something new and vibrant to bloom in its place.

And as with all gardens, this new kinder soil of my mind is something that will take constant weeding, fertilizing and watering so these new thoughts can fully take root.

But I'm willing to put in this effort because I know that growth and blooming thrive when the dead stalks are cleared away. And it creates the space for this kind of thought:  there is always time to stop and smell the flowers — I just have to make the choice to do so.

Tell me, what thoughts or habits can you cultivate today to prepare you to bloom more fully in your life?

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Flowering Fridays is a weekly look at flowers through the lens of what they might teach us about flowering fully in our life. Past editions are here.