For those of you just joining my visionary plant journey, check out previous posts to get the back story. However, I will try to catch you up to speed here.
Here's the synopsis: I have a bulb plant that I received as a gift about 3 years ago. Though it's always sprouted beautiful green leaves, it's never sprouted flowers, which is what I was told it was supposed to do. And, for the first year or so, I didn't even really have a clear idea of the true nature of this plant. I was very much a newbie to the world of growing foliage, and was excited to see it do its thing. However, around the end of year one, going into year two, the plant suddenly started to lose its leaves and wither. You can imagine at that point that I thought I destroyed the plant and was just not "cut out" for this type of thing. And, me being me, all of these experiences very much paralleled with my own thoughts surrounding my visionary plans and goals.
Despite doing everything I could think to do, and gleaning wisdom from the experts around me (i.e. my father who is the ultimate outdoors man), nothing seemed to save this plant from "seemingly" dying. It was a bit heart-breaking, if I'm honest, because I really wanted to see this plant succeed. Again, remember, there were many parallels happening for me with the growth of this plant and my own visionary growth.
Well, fast forward a few months, and to my surprise (and with a little encouragement from my mother-in-law) it started growing again on its own. It was at that point that I found out this plant was a perennial plant, and it literally has seasons of production and rest. Wow, what a game-changing realization! And, as I've journeyed with this plant's lifecycles, especially with this new found knowledge of its seasons, the process of this plant has really spoken to me over the years, especially reflecting on my own journey and vision in the last few years.
Of course, like any place in our journey, I got to a point where it was time to try a new environment, with the understanding that it needed change to grow. Yet, in all honesty, I also struggled to even "release" this plant to the outdoors (again, think: expand, change environments, trust new arenas). After much wrestling, I finally decided to re-plant it outside and see if placing it in a different environment would help it truly embrace its full nature. And, on a personal and professional level, although being exposed to new elements and a bigger arena felt uncomfortable and a bit difficult for the plant (and for me), I had to trust that the nature of this plant knew a bit more than I did.
Little did I know, despite the discomfort of change, this plant inherently was destined to not only survive, but thrive, and now, actually flourish for many seasons to come. Just this spring, as nature has become "alive" again, I excitedly saw new leaves start to sprout. This plant, after my stint of being concerned about it just being outside, has now comfortably settled into its place in the ground where it can thrive as a perennial plant should, with rest in the winter, and life in the spring.
Visionary tip: Think about your own vision's, goal's, desires' lifecycles. How have you felt like its hard to embrace seasons that are inherently a part of your path, growth, and journey -- whether personal or professional?
Now, by this point, in this new season of spring, after a very difficult winter season (you may read: 2020), I was okay thinking that all this plant was destined to do was to sprout these long green leaves, which was great. I was honestly just excited to confidently know it was going to produce again. Unfortunately, just when the leaves were starting to get some length, they were mistakingly cut by a weed wacker (yes, this has happened once before)! You can imagine my heart ached a little, especially since it was just starting a new season, and once again, the beautiful joy of new growth felt like it was cut short, literally, and figuratively. But I chose, in that moment, to let it go, and was confident it would be okay. I was also courageous enough to kindly point out the issue with the person who accidentally caused the chop. Not in a way to move them into guilt, but to be true to myself to communicate how my plant (eh hem... vision) needed to be considered and protected.
Despite this seeming "setback," what I didn't know is that this plant was going to surpass even what I thought I was confident in knowing about it, and nearly erase what I thought was a negative situation.
Without any help from me, a few weeks ago, I started to notice something new -- this plant, which I thought was always destined to only sprout lush, beautiful leaves, started showing signs of a flower bud! Now, I must admit, when I originally received this bulb, a flower bud did try to grow (nearly three years ago), but it never made it, and I never saw it happen again. But now, seemingly after a bit of time, care, transition, and love, the tall beautiful flower this plant was supposed to sprout years ago is all of a sudden starting to spring up.
Up to this point, like I said, I was content and confident just appreciating it surviving, and then later, growing to see it thrive in a bigger environment. What I didn't know is that, although I thought the highlight of this plant was displaying the leaves it produced, that wasn't the full story. Without even knowing, I was preparing to receive the gift of a literal reset; a brand new season and lifecycle of this plant. And the beautiful thing about all of this is that I have found myself appreciating these buds, even more, because of the process it (we) we have experienced. This new highlight has made me forget the sting of the leaves, and now excited about relishing in the full, and even more vibrant nature, of this plant. I mean, its also beautiful watching, because no amount of what I could have done has made this happen. Yes, I did have to watch it, nourish it, maintain the area around it, and even communicate its existence to avoid it getting cut short, but really, it wasn't even me, right? It was in this moment of reflecting on everything that I suddenly realized, it's time to enter a new season. And I'm not just talking about this plant, but about you and me, too....
So, my punchline you may ask?
There may be many of you, me included, that may feel like you've been in this cycle... or dare I say, season, where you "seemingly" have phases where you mostly thrive (sometimes not as "great" as you intended or thought you should), especially in comparison to others in the same season of life as you, but you've learned to appreciate your experiences. You've learned to go from feeling like you have to keep your dreams, vision, goals sheltered, because you thought they would slip away if you didn't protect them, and rightly so; but, you grew and embraced a new world.
But, if we're honest with ourselves, some of these cycles and seasons, even the ones of seemingly "stalled growth," which was actually a time of rest, has caused you/us to question and doubt our purpose. It was hard to see, in the moment, that that portion of our season was actually a necessary phase to the longevity of our true nature. It was actually the ebbs and flows that needed to be built into us, whether we knew it or not. Yet, just when we got to a place of accepting this phase of our season, and maybe even feeling confident to have branched out into a new environment, place, arena, network, with some kind of growth (mind you) -- we still did not know or see the full potential of who we are and what we're destined to accomplish.
YET, it's now time to not just expect growth... it's time to blossom (and I implore you to accept these thoughts with full expectation)!
Prepare yourself, because you are going to not just survive, not just thrive, but you're going to flourish with a sense of newness and vibrancy, more beautiful than you've ever imagined! You're going to be restored to a place that you didn't even know existed in you. You're going to discover a blooming about yourself that you had just assumed was not your "lot" in life. And you know how I know? Because it's time to do something that my "visionary junior" shared with me twice today while in homeschool: "mama, just believe it." Yep, you read it right: it's time to BELIEVE IT; despite what has happened; despite the pain, rejection, hurt, past traumas, failures, or setbacks. It's time for a new season.
So from me to you, from my plant to yours, from my vision to yours, just believe it. Prepare to flourish, because it's your time to blossom. And when you do, may you dare to be influentially visionary!
p.s.**Did you hear that I've launched some very fun Visionary Nurse™ Gift sets -- just in time for nurses week?! Check out more info HERE and snag yours today!
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