Behold! Blooming amongst adversity.
This scene has been going on outside my building for almost two weeks now. Every morning I step out to a colony of neon clad men, banging, digging and climbing around several sets of these trees. At the beginning of the project I thought that the flowers would be collateral damage as a result of the repair. However, each morning I am amazed at how even with all the chaos surrounding these plants, they are still growing, still thriving, and blossoming!
What’s important about this is that like these plants we don’t really need to worry about the chaos that swirls around us. What we MUST focus on is to make sure that our core, our essential selves, our roots if you will, are getting the nourishment that it needs. There is no question that I do my level best to decrease the amount of stress and strain in my life, but I have never met anyone who has been able to make their world a perfectly calm and ordered place.
I often hear that people are waiting until they are in a “good place” before they can start to take of themselves. I get that. I understand that in dealing with “stuff” that we get so exhausted and so distracted by managing the moment to moment that it feels overwhelming to take on a new project. I certainly have been guilty of it myself. But then again- it seems that we just never get to that place of calm open seas.
There in lies the magic of those beautiful red flowers, with strong and nourished roots we can thrive in adversity.
We don’t have to change the entire world around us in order to heal or strengthen ourselves. We don’t need to wrestle down chaos first. They shows us that when we feed and water ourselves adequately that we can’t help ourselves but bloom. How about that??
In addition, even this will eventually pass. By next week the men will be finished with their repair. There will be no more sawing and digging and stomping around the base of the roots. The sidewalk will be repaired, and life for those beautiful plants will go on as before.
Our stresses and unexpected life events will continue to rise and fall in and out of our lives, and now we know that we can blossom and grow, even in adversity, when we take care of our roots.