Bloom

Today the skies look as if the waters will come pouring down from the heavens. The temperature sits at 65 degrees fahrenheit.  There is a cooling but standing outside, it still feels warm.  Today is Thursday.

There are plenty of things that the word "bloom" brings to mind.  The obvious are the flowers that come at different seasons - especially in springtime and summer.  

It was ecstasy to visit the gardens where colorful tulips blanketed the entire garden space;  or to drive through the desert and see the results of long and wet winter and early spring.  The colors that came from seemingly nowhere can shift one's view toward joy (or at least more ease) over being alive.  Maybe that is why people bring flowers to celebrations - a silent, but clear gesture toward the light.

And of course, people bloom.  There are early and late bloomers and each of us knows or can feel when their life energy is at its fullest.  Then, for human beings the trick is to allow joy in the moment of full bloom and then, gracefully allow time to do what it always does.  The receding is the tricky part.  

In watching orchids, the beauty when they first enter a space can be so uplifting - and many last for weeks. African violets are a little different, both in terms of how they first appear, then the color disappears rather quickly as compared to the orchid, and finally a long wait before the next tiny blossoms lift out of the velvet green leaf bed.  Orchids take even longer when the blooms fall, and with the flowers of an orchid it is possible to see grace in the wilt, the drooping head, and the final fall - away from the stem. With care, the shoots will throw new blooms - though months may pass before these appear.

In human beings, the phenomenon is the same, but the tendency is to add an explanation about what is happening rather than observe, bear witness.  The bloom is almost always fullest at birth, when many are greeted into this world with a mix of anticipation, the excitement of knowing a new thread of life has entered the material world and has come through the miracle of formation in an awe-inspiring way.  A full bloom comes with most births.  

Then very quickly, the care and feeding of the new life happens and the blossoming of a being in the material world begins.  There is no easy form of tending.  It is filled with complexity that comes out of the need to nourish the body and soul, prune the branches that want to explore every little thing, yet at the same time - encourage growth and maturity to another level of fullness in blooming.  And one day, the tending ends and the being and beauty can be left for the world to receive. Hopefully, this should happen in every human experience.

Certainly there are missed opportunities, unintended harm and infection that may come no matter how hard the effort in in tending to a fresh, new bloom.  And for the human being - all of the distractions of the mind enter the picture.  It seems we might just learn a lot from watching wildflowers grow.