I love reading other blogs, and while I was out and about a while ago, I came across a post: Waiting for trees to bud is good because it is hard – Incense and Crayons.
Towards the end of the post the author writes:
“This practice of watching trees grow takes time because nature takes time. This practice is good, moreover, because the sacred takes time, too.”
I found it very moving.
The sentiment reminded me of my orchids. They only bloom once a year, for a few weeks… and then the blooms wilt and fall off, and you cut the stem down low and wait 9-10 months for a new shoot to appear, then bud, then bloom… it is the long wait that makes the blooms all the more special.
[My daughters will roll their eyes if they know I’m writing about my bloomin’ orchids… the plants get shuffled around the house, and then, when they’re blooming, they get brought into the dining room, and everyone has to tread carefully, and not get too close at the risk of death – theirs not the flowers!]
Frangipani trees are a bit similar. They have an awkward, clumsy nakedness for much of the year, their stumpy coral-like fingers poke the sky… until one day, they come alive with a spectacle of great green glossy leaves and then, voila! the tree is covered in fragrant unfurling five-petaled pleasures…!
Healing is perhaps a bit the same.
We’re not “evergreen”… we wilt, malt, sag, sink… and then, when the time is right, we are reenergized, and blossom anew.
Whilst looking for ways to extend the theme of today’s post, I found a lovely site called Bloomaker.com with 55 inspirational quotes about flowers, many set upon images. Here’s one of my favorites:
Healing isn’t easy – you have to spend some time in the darkness, go through some muck, then push through, surface out the other side, into the light, then blossom at last.
There was another quote that I also liked:
“The butterfly is a flying flower, the flower a tethered butterfly” – Ecouchard Le Brun
If you’re stuck at home with chronic illness, you are not any less glorious than those who are flitting about… you’re just a tethered butterfly… for now.
Hang in there people… and bloom where you’re at.
Take care taking care, Linda x
The Mindful Migraine 
Leave a comment