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{Links are always provided at the end of your reading.}
Blooming is cyclical, rhythmic, temporal.
Bloom. Blossom. Wilt. Reemerge.
Let's go to the roots and nurture your perennial peace.
B.L.O.O.M. Brave Love Opens & Orients Me.
Sometimes, I/we put so much energy into growth that I/we forget to let ourselves (or others) bloom. How do you discern when it's time to shift from growth (doing, acquiring knowledge) to bloom (being + metabolizing integrated knowledge)?
When you look around your circle of influence, you see the work to be done. You see all of the needs to be met and all the things to learn and glean.
But...
Like sweet peas, if the gardener doesn't pinch the "growth tip" and reign them in, they will keep on spiraling up in growth, but they don't get around to making flowers.
They'll grow all into the neighbor's yard and become an overwhelming matter for anyone close by.
Recently, the Spirit clearly spoke, bloom to my heart in an area of new my soul care studio. I've been researching and gathering so much information in order to launch a creative and missional soul care and self-care studio in the fall. But information is only one part.
There's so much to learn (and unlearn) and there's an unending amount of information. Personally, information gathering and research can become my obsession. But there's more...
There's intimacy.
Intimacy leads to an ever-evolving transformation.
Whereas information gathering can lead to avarice for me.
I have this insatiable appetite for observing new and not-so new discoveries and it can put me on an unhealthy growth path of over-consumption, inevitably, delaying my bloom. Like a trellis for a growing vine, I put boundaries around my growth by using the Pomodoro method + milestone markers in my written plans.
Ultimately, I attune myself to love and sense Elohim, The Gardener, giving my "growth tip" the pinch, in order for me to begin my early stages of bloom. Growth + bloom must happen in their given season, and when it is time to transition and begin to apply + metabolize what little is known to do, do that as an emerging newborn
There's potency in how our innocence shows up in the "newborn" stage of blooming. Don't despise being new to something, embrace it as you would embrace the new addition to your family.
Yes, there's a risk of looking like you don't know what you're doing, embrace that liberating stage. This is the exploration + experimentation stage... the play stage.
Valuable Lesson + Revelation
My execution of something new doesn't need to look flawless, it's good enough for us to choose to be uniquely ourselves and do the thang wholeheartedly.
Give yourself permission to be a beginner, an experimenter, to not be good at something, but to be receptive to the new soul-shaping places of uncomfortable transformation.
It's about the unforced intervals. The overwhelm comes in when we demand flawless, big and quick acquisition. There's something to be said about the sorting, small, and steady.
The budding growth or the bloom in spring shouldn't be compared to a dormant winter or a ripe, bountiful harvest. Things are happening at a root level, with little activity at the surface. This is where sustainability is nourished.
We misalign ourselves and the point when we try to hurry a process or put off our bloom because there's yet so much work to be done. There will always be something to be done, but that doesn't mean we gotta do it right then and there.
For some of us, we see bloom as a reward, for others, it's a far-off ambition, and for others, it may be an affirmation of their worth. No matter what, we've all got it wrong if we don't see bloom as the byproduct of healthy connection, beginning with + sustained at the roots.
Pause + Ponder
"When a flower doesn't bloom, you tend to the environment in which it grows, not the flower." Alexander D.H.
Let Love direct your attention to Yeshua, the Beloved, in this area of growth + bloom.
Ask the Spirit to enlighten you as to what healthy + unhealthy growth looks like for YOU. Be attentive + accept the revelation of how Elohim desires to pinch your "growth tip" to help you bloom in due season.
Take a moment to ponder these four areas in your life:
❥ Your faith (spiritual growth & bloom)
❥ Your work-play (service growth & bloom)
❥ Your friendships (relational growth & bloom)
❥ Your learning (mental growth & bloom)
The Meditation + Muse Affirmation
Roots drink deeply to nourish supremely all of the parts of the plant. Affirm: "I am intuitively + intentionally nourishing my roots, therein, my whole being is nourished. Asé + Amen."
You may download the Growth + Bloom journaling guide, if you need help to process + focus.
Until next time,
Scribble. Speak. From your soul.
I offer you my pastoral care through the Soul Care Kit four times a year. It's replete with stunning, sustainable stationery + gifts each season. Welcome it as part of your agency to bloom in season and root tend all throughout your ever-changing life phases.
Soul Care Kits:
Kits start to ship on the 29th of March (for April spring kits), June (for July summer kits), September (for October fall kits), December (for January winter kits). Complimentary shipping within the contiguous USA, not including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and other U.S territories.
Seasonal subscription for Soul Care Kits closes on the 22nd + reopens on the 1st the month prior to the next season.
Winter kit membership closes January 22nd
Spring kit membership closes April 22nd
Summer kit membership closes July 22nd
Fall kit membership closes October 22nd
Bloom. Blossom. Wilt. Reemerge. Tend to your perennial peace.
See our complete collection of shalom-making stationery in the soul care boutique + be inspired to pause with some soulful + restful sashayin’!
Links for further discovery
Psalm chapter 1 verse 3
Download the Growth & Bloom SOULutions Worksheet
Deets on Soul Care Kit VIP membership
LEAVE A COMMENT: Let me know your feedback and how this matter of growth and bloom is taking place in your life.
