The Risk to Bloom

2 minute read

 “And then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk to bloom”

Anais Ni

One of my favourite books that is never far from my side and I often delve into for nuggets of inspiration and wisdom is ‘The Book of Awakening’ by the poet Mark Nepo. This beautiful book provides small doses of simple truths and stories from everyday lives that lift the heart and remind us of the beauty and the messiness of being alive.  

I love this extract because of its gentle invitation and reminder to be curious about our pain however big or small, what is it trying to tell us, what do we need to let go of to take the risk to bloom…

 “We all face this turning point repeatedly: when resisting the flow of inner events suddenly feels more hurtful than leaping toward the unknown. Yet no one can tell us when to leap. There is no authority to bless our need to enter life but the God within.

However often we thwart ourselves by holding tenaciously to what is familiar. It is instructive, if chilling, that in floral shops the roses that won’t open are called bullets. They are discarded because they will never bloom. They have turned in on themselves so tightly that they can never release their fragrance.

Yet as spirits in bodily form, we have the chance to tighten and bloom more than once. But even spirits, if turned in on themselves enough, may grow accustomed to being closed. Unlike roses, however, the human chamber can be shut down for years, and still, it takes but one breath from the true centre and we will flower. 

It has always amazed and humbled me how the risk to bloom can seem so insurmountable beforehand and so inevitably freeing once the threshold of suffering is crossed.

I have a friend in recovery, and when asked what made him stop drinking, he says, “The pain of drinking became greater than the pain of not drinking.” The same can be said for us all. We can flower in an instant, as soon as the pain of not flowering and not loving become greater than our fear.”

Mark Nepo

Are you at a turning point or a crossroads?
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