blooming...a question.
backyard bloom, april 2008
it can be very difficult to check in with ourselves when we are in the midst of living our lives. we have so many roles that we juggle and so many things to get done and we are pulled in this direction and in that way. it can be easy to forget ourselves. this can happen even when we might be in a place where we have time to do things that are "for us" (like creating and writing and taking photos and cooking on and on).
all the ideas and thoughts and hopes and dreams that tumble inside my heart and mind sometimes invite me to just want to take a nap. my wish that those dreams would become real now or my idea for a new design that takes over the energy i need to put into the current design i am working on can quickly change from inspiring to exhausting.
in the balancing of my full-time job with time with family and friends with living this creative life with trying to breathe, i can lose sight of what i am actually doing, how i am actually growing, how i am living in my life. it is hard to see when i am standing in the middle of it all...
today though, as the confused snow falls once again on the spring blossoms, this thought came to me:
how are you blooming?
it felt like an invitation to take out my moleskine and write an accounting of me. to write about where i am right now. it felt like an invitation to sit quietly and close my eyes and breathe and just notice. it felt like an invitation to honor me and where i am in a given moment in time.
i wonder if you might want to join me...
this is an invitation to let go of the shoulds and the pulls of others and things around you. this is an invitation to check in with yourself through writing an accounting or sitting quietly or whatever other way moves you.
this is an invitation to honor how you are blooming in your life.
a question (for you), take a breath
Reader Comments (16)
I just read your bio. I knew you must live in the NW, as I do, because of the snow this weekend. I live in Olympia, and it snowed both Saturday and yesterday. I, too, used the time to pause and reflect. Needed sometimes! Eunice
how wonderful, tonight when i am home alone, i am going to do this, i think i need to do this. thank you for this invitation. xo
i love this idea liz...and honey you most definitely are BLOOMING like crazy...hope you see how beautiful your opening petals are...
Your entry has perfect timing - I am sitting here, in a windy California afternoon, doing exactly what you recommend: taking stock, seeing that even though this morning started out bad, I have grown (in just the last months) to the point where I have truly found my passion, my desire to bloom into my true self, and I have moved beyond the madness of this morning and can find the light in the rest of the day.
Thank you for the opportunity to share! I am really enjoying your writing (it "feels" so soothing) and your photos.
I don't really feel like I'm blooming at all lately. Every time I think I am, I feel like I'm being pruned just a little bit more, a clip here, a clip there. Ouch don't touch that part of me. The scourching sun, burning deep into my heart, to reveal the truth that's really there. I want to hide in the shade, for comfort and solitude. But then the rain comes, washing, cleansing, cleaning. Come out little one, bloom one more time, stretch you leaves high, open up your blooms, it's okay. With beauty comes, comes growth and sometimes those growing pains hurt. Wow, where did that come from, I'm gonna go post this on my blog. Thanks for the challenge!
Liz,
I feel you...I really do. This is exactly where I have been lately! I have been writing about where I am and how I'm "blooming" quite a bit and also have noticed how I need to slow down, which is why I have decided on a bit of a blogging break. Gorgeous photo and words...
Love,
D.
thank you for the suggestion
and invitation to do this...
i have sat still
and written with this in mind
and it was funny at what came up...
in truth, i feel a little
scattered
right now...
before campbell got sick,
i was on task with the whole poetry plan
but then, while campbell was sick,
spring happened.
and now i feel as though
i am spinning in 50 directions
but not making any real
progress in any one area.
and thank you for suggesting this.
it made me slow down and think
for a minute
and realize i need to prioritize.
hugs!!
{and hope your snow melts quickly!}
you sound so tender and soft...i love you blooming...
i thought about this this morning...and realised i don't need to do or be anything...i just have to live xx
I am actually in the midst of a checking in right now with my book and it is a crazy switching of gears after being in a creative frenzy for so long. Here's to taking a time out now and then.
I was just writing about this in my journal, sitting at my desk, overlooking all the tulips in the front yard. (And I am sorry -- you seem to be getting OUR spring weather.) I have taken the plunge into blogging recently. I take my writing fairly (too?) seriously and have found myself getting a wee bit obsessed with stats. But this morning it hit me how FAR I have come, how much I have allowed my peony-self to open by putting myself out there, and that that is what I should focus on -- I am writing every day! And I've started taking photos again. This has happened, in large part, due to inspirational blogs like yours. So, thank you.
Dear Liz,
What a beautiful post. It's so easy to get sidetracked by our own to-do's and get bushwacked by the expectations of others. I am enjoying watching the hostas poke out of the ground and in some ways feel like they are bursting right out of my chest. After the long, hard and dark winter we've had, I finally feel a rewakening. Would Spring to so glorious if we didn't have the flip side?
What a beautiful blog entry...I'm going off to think about how I'm blooming...
I was thinking along these lines this morning. At first feeling a little depressed, feeling the frustration of having so much I want to do, but feeling a bit stuck ... but then I thought about the past year or so, and realized that I have come so very far in a short time. It's all good! ... Today it's soft rain in Spokane, so I hope the snowy stuff has stopped for you, too.
Beautiful post and exercise and you know that I understand the needing/trying to balance. You are indeed blooming, in numerous wonderful ways and I believe that taking this time that you are taking will only enrich that blooming.xoxo
I love this post, Liz. These are words that my eyes needed to read and questions that my heart needs to ask. xx, JP/deb
wonderful. i needed that.
<3 lissa (aka turtlefly)