Some of us remember making May Day baskets with flowers to give away to friends and family. Why not have flowering as a theme now that the trees are leafing out. The bulbs are blooming. Seedlings are rising like a green chorus from the ground and we delight. When a person we know flowers may the same delight be there. It is embodied permission for us to bloom, too.
Phrases Posted on Facebook, May 2022
Plants do very well when they are fertilized with treated manure. Shit (excuse the coarseness) is vital. Treating and transforming our shit with respect almost always leads to blooming.
I just planted some bean seeds in starter pots filled with dark soil. Now it is waiting time when nothing seems to be happening. Descent into the unknown and silence seems to be the classical way of regeneration. I’m planting myself in the dark soil of silence for a week and will be back to posting after.
As I shared last time, I plated some seeds in starter cups. While I was away not all of them germinated. No explanation for that. Some seasons we don’t take hold and don’t germinate either. We seem to be on hold. What is left is the dark soil of the unknown. It’s good to remember that it is nevertheless full of potential. We can take heart and begin to sense into that mystery and look for small signs of hope and possibility. Another season will come in time.
I was recently at a very special place in Danielson CT called Logees. It is a magical place to visit. When you go inside there is an astounding variety of blossoming plants. I can’t count how many variegated leaves I saw. There were fruit trees (with fruit), and begonias of every stripe from all over the world. I alternated between complete silence and wanting to shout WOW! What if we could be similarly impressed with the astounding beauty and variety that we humans are? Aren’t we Life’s blossoms, too?
You can’t artificially make yourself blossom!! Any effort in that direction is ultimately fake, something like hot house ventures and not organic development.
We need to trust that wherever we are now and whatever challenges we have are on the way of full becoming. Pot bound or deeply pruned we can trust that our deep roots are alive and supporting us into eventual full growth and flowering.
The persons whom we see in full flowering who don’t know it or call attention to it are the ones whose innocence and joy reach into the innocence and joy of those who behold them. It’s catching in a very tender way.
An alpine flower may delicately blossom on a hillside and never be noticed. Yet it will be in full flowering. A vibrant, red bougainvillea may riot in full view of everyone on a porch. And that will also be just right. What flowering is for one person may be very different for another. There’s no sense in comparing and judging. Beauty comes in so many guises.
Those of us who have gardens or houseplants know the task of dead heading, removing what once bloomed so more can blossom. In our own being we need to let go of what was even if it was wonderful so we can unfold into what can be now.
To the untrained eye flowering looks easy. Voila! But it has taken trial and error, waiting, struggling, resting, disappointment, uncertainty, energy and willingness. When a person is in full flowering it is backed by years of effort. Not easy and very beautiful.
Take a look at a perennial in the flowerbed coming to fullness again now that it is summer. Look deeper than its present beauty and see how it endured wind, heat, cold, snow, rain and much more to be here again in its fullness. Flowering needs our respect. As I said in my last post, flowering is not easy, and it is amazing.
This last day of the month things in nature are bursting with blossoms. It is a feast and though violence has burst out again in many parts of our nation there still are quiet, grass roots efforts toward sanity, equality, hope and common care. We can each do things with whatever means and talents we have to support others. Think of such acts as green tendrils from one human being to another making the world more verdant. It is a prayer taken to action that heals and makes a vast difference.