All Abloom!

Did you ever notice that sometimes you’re just chock full of great ideas? Sometimes you’re blooming with creativity, energy, originality? If you’re a musician, all the right notes come out, if you’re a writer all the right words flow, if you’re a yogi or a dancer you have all the right moves? If you’re a computer geek you’ve got every program figured out; every swing lands you a home run?

            And then, there are those days, weeks, months and possibly even years when you don’t bloom at all. I’ve been through some days, months, and yes, years like that, and it sort of reminds me of a certain pear tree in my back yard. Some years the tree is full of blossoms at this time in spring, and by September my lawn is covered with pears that have dropped from its branches. But other years, the blooms are scarce, with only a few pears to pick up in the autumn (we don’t spray the pear trees, so the bugs, birds, and woodchucks enjoy the bulk of the fruit).

            Well, here’s my point: Every time I have a week, month, or year off I tend to panic. Will I never write a sentence again? Will I never have a worthwhile thought again? Will I never have another plan, or another idea, or another hope, dream, or project? Are my days of blooming over, never to return?

            A few years ago, we lost an apple tree in our yard to a ferocious storm (you’d think I live on a farm, not on a tiny plot of land in New Jersey)…but the strange thing was, the following year the nearby plum tree, which had not bloomed in twenty years --was absolutely laden with gorgeous, sweet-smelling, white blossoms.

            The word is trust. Just like that pear tree that sometimes seems to have given it all up, just like that plum tree that was dormant for two decades, we all can keep on blooming. Maybe not on our schedule. Maybe not in the area in which we planned, maybe not even this year. But, as Mother Nature shows us, it’s okay and perhaps even necessary to take some time off. You may feel stagnant, or hopeless, or even in despair, but trust that you will bloom again. We always do.