Flowering Friday: The Blooming Open

Remember the sad frostbitten orchid plant that I've been nurturing for two years?

It's now one of the showiest orchids on my windowsill at the moment, bursting forth with blooms.

I so appreciate this plant for all it's been teaching me about patience, about watering seedlings, about speaking kindly to myself (and others) — all the keys to truly fostering growth.

It reminds me of this Ralph Waldo Emerson quote:

All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

And this quote from Sharon Salzberg (reportedly from Oprah's O Magazine):

Any ordinary favor we do for someone or any compassionate reaching out may seem to be going nowhere at first, but may be planting a seed we can`t see right now. Sometimes we need to just do the best we can and then trust in an unfolding we can`t design or ordain.

I had an amazing energy healing session Thursday night with a wise woman who is study with Rev. Martina Schmidt's Energy Medicine Healing certificate program.

Out of our session emerged the answer to "The Waiting" I've been experiencing the last few months. I'm beyond thrilled the answer has bloomed forth and taken the form of a new writing project that feels exciting and perfect for me.

It's been so uncomfortable for me this past year as I've said "no" to many work-related opportunities that didn't feel like a "yes" for me anymore.

I've been waiting and praying for something new to say a whole-hearted "yes!" to, and I believe I've found it.

I feel this new calling is the one all my experiences up until now have prepared me for. (Of course, this is how life works for everyone!) And I love that this new avenue dovetails so beautifully with so many areas that I naturally love and explore. (This too is how it's supposed to be — you are meant to share the things that you love and are passionate about.)

I almost can't put it all into words right now. I'm so grateful, energized and (to be honest) relieved.

But it also feels like a tender seedling that, for now, I'm going to hold close and water and fertilize it until it has grown enough to share with the world.

And with each step, I intend to love this journey of watching me bloom open in a bigger and bolder way than ever before.

Tell me, what tender seedling of an idea or a dream will you protect and nurture so that it can bloom open in your life in a big way?

*************

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.

Inspiring Me Today: Watering the Seedling

Zinnia seedlings on the kitchen windowsill

Each of us is a seed, a silent promise, and it is always spring. ~ Merle Shain

The zinnia seeds above took 10 days to sprout. Around day 8, I was ready to throw the pot away, thinking they didn't work. But I watered them and waited.

And behold, they did take. (Yes, again, a reminder about the virtues of patience. Something I am slowly but surely learning.)

I watched an amazing documentary last night, "A Man Named Pearl," about Pearl Fryar from Bishopsville, South Carolina, who constructs an incredibly magical and artistic topiary garden in his yard. What's amazing is that he creates this without any formal training — with a lot of love, patience and determination.

“Gardening books will tell you that some of these things in my garden can’t be done, but I had never read them when I got started. Not knowing ahead of time that something is supposed to be impossible often makes it possible to achieve. I didn’t have any limitations because I really didn’t know anything about horticulture. I just figured I could do whatever I wanted with any plant I had.” — Pearl Fryar

For me his story speaks all about the necessity of determination and patience when following your dream. Fryar's creations can take five years to grow into the shape he imagines. He trims and cuts and visualizes their growing into his vision. For years at a time.

"There's always going to be obstacles. The thing is you don't let those obstacles determine where you go." — Pearl Fryar

I'm so inspired by these kinds of people. People who figure out what it is that calls them, and then follow it. No. matter. what.

It's a testament for me of where following your bliss with an open heart can lead. Of what can happen when you take the seeds that bloom in your heart and keep watering them with love and inspired action.

Tell me, what seeds of your heart are you committed to watering, even if it take years to see them take their full form?

P.S. Learn more about Pearl here. (I couldn't get his main site to pull up today.) Trailer for documentary is below; direct link here.

The Waiting

From walk on Milwaukee's Oak Leaf Trail, February 09, taken with iPhone (using CameraBag filters)

I'm in this interesting space of waiting lately. I have let down as many of my old leaves of being, and I feel a bit barren without all that old foilage to cover me.

I can sense the new sprouts coming forth, ready to bud out of my skin. But they haven't yet emerged.

I sometimes feel impatient with this new "me" that is being birthed. Come on, I demand, sprout already.

But I know that nature is wise. And that all things bloom in the divine right time.

So I practice the waiting.

The waiting for the new to emerge. Trusting in the coming spring. Knowing there is a natural process at work, perfectly unfolding.

I am practicing being with the waiting in a present way — noticing without attachment. (Admittedly sometimes easier said than done.)

I am practicing feeling all that comes up for me around the waiting. (Discomfort, fear, worry — inner-knowing and joy, too.)

And I am learning the profound lessons that that waiting can teach me about patience and trust and the nature of life. Indeed there is a time for every season under heaven.

Tell me, where is the waiting for you in your life right now? And how are you being with the waiting?