Patience and Bloom
Outside my bedroom window is an almond tree that I gave my husband for a wedding anniversary. The spring bloom is absolutely beautiful and this year I savored watching tiny buds turn into beautiful blooms over several days. There is something magical watching something emerge without intervention. Just following it's natural course without urgency or hurry and in it's own perfect time.
Seeing the transition caused me to reflect on how, with the hustle and bustle of modern lives, it can be hard to allow ourselves, and our children, the space to emerge at our own pace and in our own way. They say patience is a virtue but I can assure you that it is most certainly not one of my attributes. I take my hat off to those people who can wait without agitation and just "be" in the moment. I've noticed that for myself, it is during unhurried moments that I feel the most content so it's got me thinking about how I can create more of these moments of presence.
If the extraordinarily complex situation of our busy lives was to be broken down into equations, I think that one of the most important components would look something like this:
Allowing more time = less rush = more quality time
Pretty simple right? But the starting block is the stumbling block because how do we allow more time while still keeping all those balls in the air? We pick up less balls of course 🤷♀️ I can almost hear your groans of frustration because this news is nothing new. The list of to-do's feels never ending and sometimes it feels like we are falling short of completing the bare minimum required to keep things on track so suggesting that we pick up less balls can quite frankly feel like a slap in the face. So why suggest it?
The reason is that lately I've been contemplating another part of the equation which is our perceived obligation to "keep things on track". What track? Whose track? The "track" is our idea about how things should be and it is has been formed by all of the influences around us. Our friends, our colleagues, our families, our schools, our society, ourselves. But, if we strip all of that away, if we remove all of that expectation, what is left? It is impossible to provide an answer because we cannot remove ourselves from the parameters of our lives but it is a question that plays on my mind a lot and I think it is a healthy thought to ponder as it might provide us with an alternative perspective. A glimpse into what it might be like to blossom in our own true time.