Flowering Fridays: Soaking It In

Clematis in my dad & stepmom's garden, Ohio, last weekend

When my mother offered to have our daughter stay with her in Ohio for 10 days, I said a hearty "yes."

(yeah, it's pretty great thing. Thanks, Mom!)

I had visions of these uber-productive days, getting a bunch of stuff done — business, book and home stuff. But once home, I found myself a bit giddy with the freedom of life sans child.

(I love my girl and miss her, but it is wonderful to be off mom-time for a bit.)

I've gone clothes shopping and shoe shopping. I ate dinner at 8 o' clock. I got a pedicure and an eyebrow wax. My man and I have gone out to eat twice (twice, I say). We went to a movie and took a drive around some of the local lakes in his convertible. I sat on my living room couch and noticed how quiet the house was. I watched the turkeys with the first bunch of turkey chicks come to the feeder. I walked around the garden and noticed the flowers and picked strawberries.

In short, I've been soaking it all in.

(Brief pause to recommend the movie we saw, The Brothers Bloom — quirky and fresh with a cool theme around scripting the story of your life.)

The "soaking-it-all-in" part, of course, has been very, very good. What wasn't so good was the guilty whispers that crept up and chided me for not being more productive. "You should be working while Grace is with Grammy," they sneered.

But I pointed out to these snivel-ly voices that I was getting things done, thank you very much. And I sent these voices out into the garden to look at the plants.

Look, I said, look at these plants. They can't be flowering all the time. There has to be time to soak in the sun and the rain. To rest and rejuvenate. To put down deeper roots. To breathe.

For me, I can lose sight of the importance of soaking it all in. Especially when I'm also out to bloom big in my life. I get so focused that I just want to bloom, bloom, bloom. Which is a great desire.

But I need to remember that part of blooming is being in the process of blooming, which means that you can't be blooming all the time.

No flower can. Not you. Not me. Not even a prolific bloomer, like Ms. Spirea. All bloom means brittle stalks and shallow roots. All bloom means flowers that are anemic and lackluster.

Full blooming means dancing between being in bloom and not being in bloom.

{poignant pause…not-so-ironic lesson coming…}

It's interesting to note that I have crossed more off my "to do" list this week than I have a in a while.

Sure, some of my "productivity" is due to the fact that the mommy part of my brain and energy is freed up for other things and that I chose to let some regular routines like blogging and tweeting and emailing slide.

But I believe that my spike in productivity is mostly because I've allowed more space for soaking it in than I've had in a while.

More fun, more play, more soaking it all in minus stress, struggle, "working" = more done.

Lesson duly noted.

Tell me, what "soaking it in" activities nourish you and fill you up?

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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.

Flowering Fridays: Inching Toward Growth

Lily of the Valley, side bed, May 2009

I love the Lily of the Valley and its delicate string of flowers.

I love how each flower seems to build upon the next, growing it taller and into something bigger and more beautiful as a result of the collective blooming.

This is how we grow into our blooming big in life — one step at a time, moving and growing inch by inch with every step we take.

It reminds me of the refrain of a favorite song of my childhood:

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

— from The Garden Song by David Mallett

I need to remember to take small steps. Little inches forward.

My tendency is to want to do it all at once.

Like write a book. Now. Or clean out the attic. Now. Or Lose 20 pounds. Now.

But that's not how life works. There is a journey and process to everything in life.

From cleaning the attic to to writing a book to creating a business to growing a garden.

I have to remind myself that it's the small inch-by-inch movements that allow the seeds of what I want to create to take root and grow into a beautiful flower.

Take my new book project. I see how I want it to come together, and I want it all figured out, oh, yesterday.

But for now, all I can do are the first "inchings": set up some research interviews, do some market research and journal for 30 minutes several times a week to explore ideas.

"Inching" keeps it manageable.

Sometimes I like to think in yard-long lengths: Write for 8 hours straight. Design a website for book in a weekend. Create a marketing plan.

But that's too much for me to take on at once.

Inch-size movements are better for me and allow me to keep my steady momentum going.

In this way, I will create this new book.

One sentence at a time. One interview at a time. One inching at a time.

Tell me, what's one small "inching" you can take toward your blooming big dream in your life?

P.S. I've gotten some wonderful insights and support for keeping my actions small and actionable through Jen Louden's Comfort Cafe and Life Spa membership site. If you sign up before June 20, you can lock in the $12 monthly fee for the life of your membership. She provides a ton of goodies each month (teleseminars, meditations, a lively forum of inspiring women). I highly recommend it.

By the way, I'm heading out to Ohio to visit family (almost all my family is in the Cleveland area) and celebrate my dad and stepmom's 25th wedding anniversary with a soiree my stepsisters and I are hosting. So fun.

I'll leave you with a little John Denver goodness (who doesn't need a little John Denver goodness, right?!) Check out this video of him singing "The Garden Song" on the Muppet Show. Check out the flower, plant and watermelon muppets. Darling! Direct link to video here.

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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.

Sharing Some Seeds

What I was writing in my journal during our photo shoot, taken by Grace

On Monday, my almost-8-year-old daughter, Grace, helped me out by taking some photos for the My Creative Life interview I did with The Arts Coach, Gabrielle Javier-Cerulli.

It was so fun watching my daughter, who has a wonderful eye for framing photos, be my photographer.

I also had fun answering Gabrielle's questions.

She asked me for my best piece of advice for others who want to do what I do, and I answered:

Write. Read. Believe in your dreams. Go for it. Be patient. Be persistent. Be kind to yourself. Give back what you learn. Bloom big — the world needs the beautiful flower you are.

You can see the full interview and more photos here: http://theexpressiveartscoach.blogspot.com/

(Thanks so much, Gabrielle, for the opportunity to share!)

Tell me, what's your best piece of advice you can give to someone based on what you know and have experienced?