Monday Musings: Your Boldest Bloom

peony taken in a gardener friend's garden on Saturday

You have probably read this quote before, but it's one that bears frequent reading:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ~ Marianne Williamson

It's the start of a new week.

Welcome, Monday, with your fresh promise of new beginnings.

So, if playing small does not serve the world....and if we are all born to shine...

Tell me, what step can you take this week toward becoming your boldest bloom in the world?

It can be a teeny, tiny step in the direction of your blooming big.

Or a bodacious one.

But please join me in taking one step toward your fullest flowering in life.

The world needs your light, your brilliance, the beautiful flower you are.

For me, my step is going to be setting up some research interviews for my new book project.

I notice that I procrastinate and go into "busy" mode out of some fear that comes up for me around this project.

And this procrastination keeps me from shining my fullest light.

So this week, I commit to keep opening and unfolding — one step at a time — into being most beautiful, boldest bloom I can be in the world.

Will you do the same?

Flowering Fridays: Noticing the Details

Another beauty blooming in my front bed this week

The details make life holy.

If you want a little happiness in life don’t forget to look at the little things.

It is a poet’s work to see the incidental, pluck it, place an appropriate silence around both sides and see the profound in what passes for a passing moment.

It is an artist’s job to as much discover art as create it.

Prayer is a way of making the common profound by pausing, tying knots around a moment, turning our life into a string of pearls.

~ Noah Ben Shea

In case you hadn't noticed: I love flower close-ups.

(yeah, I know, major news flash, right?)

But I didn't know this before I started taking flower pictures last September.

It's something that developed over time. I just started zooming as much as my little Canon Powershot would allow.

What I love about getting close is capturing the uniqueness of each flower.

Like the small yellow flower-y things at the edge of this flower's center. And how the dots in the center get smaller and smaller.

(Can you tell I'm not much on the technical side of flowers? No matter, I just love them. And that is enough.)

I just love noticing these small details which, for me, speak to the heart and soul of the flower.

Indeed, for me, the holiness of life and flowers are found in the details.

Looking for the "holy details" has brought me more joy, more connection, more wonder and more delightful surprises.

It also has allowed me to bloom a little bit bigger myself.

Because when we are in an orientation of noticing details and proclaiming them "holy," we open ourselves to growth and expansion.

I say proclaiming because you get to choose whether you seem them as holy or not.

You could look at the details and see boring, pesky or annoying.

It's like looking at a yard of dandelions and choosing to see flowers instead of weeds.

When we proclaim the details as holy, we get to experience life with a sense of aliveness, possibility and curiosity.

Because from this lens, there is always something beautiful and holy to notice in each and every moment.

Tell me, what holy details are you noticing today?

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Flowering Fridays is a weekly look at flowers through the lens of what they might teach us about flowering fully in our life. Past editions are here.

Making Space to Bloom Big

Red poppy in front bed who is now blooming

In my garden, it's a blooming big kind of week.

Some of my most gregarious and boldest blooms — Miss Poppy and Lady Peony — are showing their stuff.

I've been watching them for the past few weeks, and I was surprised to notice that the blooming isn't very neat and pretty with these two.

No, siree.

The poppy looked almost dead — all dried up and hard.

Peony looked like it was being held prisoner by a fortess of green.

Truly, it didn't look — from the outside — that anything grand was going to come of things.

See exhibit A below:

There is nothing about this matted, cramped bud that would indicate a huge poppy — nearly two hands-width across and lovely as a couture gown — is about to step outside of its shell.

But indeed, from this tangled, tight space came the glorious poppy.

The lesson: in the process of blooming, things can get pretty cramped. For the bloom to emerge, you've got to shed your shell and break out into a new space.

I've been noticing that as I continue to shift more and more into the bloom I'm meant to be, I experience both internal — and external — shifting.

Internally, there is shifting and shedding of old ways of self-talk, old mindsets, and old hurts that need loved and healed to wholeness.

Externally, shifting often shows up as getting rid of stuff in our house.

As my — and my husband's — energy has shifted, we have been clearing and releasing that which no longer serves us, we no longer use or we no longer love.

At first, I felt great shame in all the excessive stuff.

Do I really need to keep my Marxist Critical Theory paper on Hegel? Four large shelves of cookbooks I don't use? The maternity clothes from nine years ago?

But now I'm coming to see the process of shedding off as a sign that I'm entering a new space of flow, trust and abundance.

This summer, my husband and I are committed to making way for even more new energy (and possibly a new house).

On our short list:

• Clearing out the attic and basement.
• Releasing some stagnant energy in our worn kitchen floor and cabinets.
• Setting up an office space for him and new writing and meditation room that I love, love, love to be in.

Indeed, there's a lot of house love on our agenda for this summer.

But I'm not worried.

I've got support.

I've signed up for the wonderful Declutter Goddesses e-course from Goddess Leonie of Goddess Guidebook and Lisa Baldwin of Divine Order.

(Thank you, Leonie and Lisa, truly this couldn't come at a better time.)

I love that the e-course's subtitle is Making Space for Your Goddess to Shine.

For I'm ready not only to clear out my space, but also infuse what remains with glowing good energy.

Want to play along, too?

See all the space-clearing goodness you get here.

I think it's a bargain!

I'm so excited for this to begin on June 15th as I know that each box of items I give away is making space for my own big bloom to emerge.

Tell me, what one area of your life could use some decluttering?

P.S. I also want to thank the bubbly, artful goodness that is Goddess Leonie and her inspring website, Goddess Guidebook, for being a spot where some of my blooming big dreams are taking root.

My first ad is now running on her homepage. (Major happy dance! Check it out and let me know what you think!)