This morning I was walking in our stadium which has a row of ponge trees along it’s periphery. More than twenty elegant ponge trees line about half the circumference of the stadium and form a lovely border for the open green expanse in between. I noticed however that while all the other trees were flaunting lush green leaves that danced in the breeze, one tree was brown and dry – with branches that looked droopy and saggy. As I walked closer to the tree to examine, I realized that the brown tree (also a ponge tree just like the others) actually had branches sagging with the weight of a million tiny brown buds. Sometime in the near future those buds will burst forth into beautifully coloured blossoms that will turn the tree into a visual and delight and home for a million bees and butterflies. We human beings will gaze at it in rapt wonder – and at that time all the other ponge trees would have shed their leaves and will stand dry and brown – waiting for their buds to grow.
Now I have two questions for you dear reader – ‘Do You have to Bloom All the Time?’, and ‘What is Your Blooming Season?’
We all have seasons and cycles – just like the trees don’t we? We don’t do it all together and at the same time. Sometimes we are reflective, sometimes we are growing and changing internally (though nothing is visible outside). Sometimes we rest, sometimes we repair, and sometimes we grow and flourish in a way that is visible externally. Sometimes we bloom and flaunt beautiful flowers – we delight in the bountiful sparkling gifts that we have to give to others – our contribution and grandeur is visible and acknowledged. At other times we stand by ourselves brown and dry, but connected to the earth, alive inside and doing the inner work that needs to be done before the buds can begin to grow and show.
It is up to us to be kind to support ourselves and to have our own back through all these seasons for even while external appreciation and acknowledgment might come only in the blooming period, we actually remain a contribution through all our seasons. The quiet, reflective, restful, and growing periods are essential to have and without it we will not be able to bloom during our blooming period.
My second question to you is, ‘what is your unique blooming season?’ Is your cycle the same that is followed by the others around you or are you like the Ponge tree in the stadium that is blooming ‘out of season’. If you are like the latter then please please recognize that you are not ‘out of season’. You are out of the season as defined by the majority. You still are in your own ‘season’. Is that necessarily a problem? It can create disagreements sometimes for sure – but it is not necessarily or automatically ‘wrong’. It is just ‘out of sync’ with the majority.
In my own life there have been times when I have found it difficult to step in sync and tune to the beat of the majority – and then I would start feeling ‘wrong’ about it. I would criticize myself for not being able to ‘fit in’. I would spend more time and energy ‘trying to fit in’ instead of actually allowing myself to bloom in my own season. Today, this lovely Ponge tree reassured me yet once again that even in nature, seasons are not absolute for all plants and trees. There are anomalies (or outliers) – call them whatever you want to, in nature as well, and even those outliers can be healthy, strong, beautiful gifts and a contribution to our planet.
If you have been finding it exhausting to march to the beat of the majority, then might it be time for you to just let it go and create your own life in a way that you can live and breathe while truly being you. I have created a separate closed group on facebook for those who would like to connect on a journey of self-transformation where we continually reinvent and craft our lives so that it reflects a happier and more authentic version of our true being. The modality of tools that will be shared in this group are primarily energy tools (for the simple reason that I find working at the energy level to be the simplest, fastest and most practical way to create change). You are welcome to join this group to learn more. Here is the link to join the group –https://www.facebook.com/groups/1853531421604631/