Look to the flowers as a guide of how we need live our lives day by day. Then follow.
Think of when you're given a bouquet of roses.
When they are fresh cut, the petals are closed, not quite displaying the beauty we know lies within.
A few days later...viola...the roses open to display a splendor we knew lurked within.
Each time I see roses open up, it is a fresh experience. Each time, I know what's going to happen. But each time I am filled with joy to gaze upon each rose in its uniqueness and see it solely for its own beauty. Each rose displays its own splendor to me.
So it is with each one of us.
We come into the world all closed in and curled up.
As time passes, we begin to open up...slowly...but unrelentingly...through life.
We follow each step laid out for us by our parents or guardians.
The "flowering" within us begins around adolescence when we begin to express ourselves in unique ways, as we strive to find our own footing in the world.
We continue to search for our own individual path in life, as we strain to hear the music within our souls that guide us to become a teacher...a doctor... a lawyer...a musician...a writer...a sales person...a computer "geek"...a counselor...
We listen so closely to our Souls, as we know what we know about our talents and gifts in the world.
We walk through life with stride and with pride as young adults, having discovered, we believe, our place in the world.
During this period of time, some people do get lost to the music within them.
The music seemingly has stopped playing.
So, our ability to hear stops for many reasons, but it always is that we've stopped listening.
We've stopped listening because we've drowned it out...with exterior music not of our own.
Often, it is alcohol that dulls our ability to continue to hear the music.
Often, it is drugs, recreational drugs of our choosing, that separate us from ourselves.
Often, it is the critical voice of others telling and dictating to us who and what we ought to be as we try to uncover our path in life.
"The majority of our actions are guided by the force of other people's opinions and teachings."
Those of us who have been able to see our petals open in the directions of our dreams and are able to continue to hear some music truly are of the privileged group.
This means that despite all that the world might have thrown upon our path, we have been able to navigate successfully around all the debris and hubris and "noise" trying to separate us from the music within us...from our Souls.
"Often as we are being transformed, we cannot tell what is happening. For while in the midst of staying afloat, it is next to impossible to see the ocean we are being carried into."- Mark Nepo, Book of Awakening
We continue to hear our music throughout our 20s...though its distinction is fading.
The music we begin to hear as we enter into our third decade of life begins to sound and seem like everyone else's.
Yes, we have traveled our individual path to career aspirations.
Yes, we have chosen the man/woman of our own desires.
Yes, we have made choices for our lives that seem all our own.
Then come the 30s...
Suddenly, the music is seeming stale and every day seems to follow a natural pattern.
We begin to look around to see what our friends and neighbors are doing to keep their music going.
We begin to stop listening to our own music because it is easier to claim the world's music as our own.
So, we follow...we follow...we follow...
the path dictated to us by mass consciousness!
We begin to walk through life without hearing our own music...we begin to operate
on cruise control for our lives as we look around and see the path that has been laid out by so many others who went before us.
Surely, there is NO more music left in me, we begin to believe!
"While feeling our hand pried loose by experience, we seldom can imagine what will fill it once it is opened."-Mark Nepo
We continue to walk. We continue to feel dull...unfulfilled...
We become anesthetized by the boredom that comes from living a life
that is no longer our own.
We hear none of our own music. We follow the world's pattern for our age and stage in life. We do. We become...this creature...that is alien to ourselves.
One day, we decide to wake up.
We begin to go within to discern and hear our own music again.
Life begins to flower again.
"...though we can't yet imagine how much fresher milk and sky and laughing will taste once we are returned to the feel of being new."-Mark Nepo, Book of Awakening
The only role you should play during this time is to remain O-P-E-N to the changes that begin to occur.
Trust like your life depends on it...because it does!
Have faith, like you need it...because you will!
Love the process...because it will lead you ...it will lead you ultimately to your good.
It is our struggles against the process of change that leads us into pain.
If only...if only...if only...we can stay O-P-E-N as the changes begin to occur, becoming a silent witness to our own lives as the spirit within moves within us, then we will not feel the pain of friction.
I know this is hard to do...to stay open...so I tell you that is the time...that is THE TIME...to immerse yourself in Prayer. P-R-A-Y-E-R.
The angel I collected during one of these periods carries these words on her wings, "Faith is having confidence in God, even when you do not understand."
Joel Osteen recently wrote in Today's Word, "The God we serve is not a small God. His plan for your life is not for you to reach one level, get stuck and stay there for 30 or 40 years. His plan is to increase you, open new doors before you, and take you places that you’ve never imagined. He has something big in your future!"
Most of us don't get the gifts of life God has laid out for us and has waiting for us, because we feel comfortable stuck at the same level on the same path with the same people.
That type of life is holding you back from your good, no matter how content you may feel in that way of living.
If you wake up each day feeling the sameness of life...feeling the emptiness of NO growth...in other words...stagnant and stale...it is time for you to let your flower open up again!
Don't let the petals begin to close back in on your life even before you're dead...
Find new fields to let your petals flourish and open up again!
You flourish by staying open and willing to change.
You flourish by having new waters cascade upon your head from up above.
You flourish by staying true to the music within you.
Don't allow your flower to close because someone doesn't want to come along with you.
Your path is your own.
Your music is your own.
Listen.
Stay Open.
Flourish.
Then sprew out your scent upon us all...
you beautiful, singular rose of life!
"Despite all our limitations, the most crucial challenge of being human is to show up like a rose."-Mark Nepo
Namaste',
Che'
