Hmm…I love the reality of blooming.

Bloom Flowers rioting with color, willy-nilly reaching up to the sun. I love the gentle lines of peonies and the puff of a blue hydrangea. I long for the delicate lace of things that grow wild in a field.

Queen Anne's LaceThe word bloom holds up the idea of coming into our own, the natural result of the growing cycle. It can be hard to wait for the bloom.

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Sometimes we get it backwards.

Have you ever chased after the bloom, trying to skip over the planting, waiting, or watering? Have you ever tried to force a bloom in your life before its time?

For truly, it is hard to wait all the days that seeds lie dormant under the pressure of dirt and roots stretch  deep. It’s hard when waiting wonders if that tender green shoot will  grow tall and bloom open wide.

Waiting for the bloom can make us feel as if all our efforts reach out into space and we have no control in a world that promises hard work pays off.

Maybe each of us struggles with the temptation to want the bloom before its ready–both in ourselves and also in others. Expecting a bloom, we are irritated or disappointed when that sweet shoot of a child can’t bloom on our timetable.

BloomThinking yes it’s time, we interpret our own lack of a bloom as failure or inability.

Haven’t we all struggled with trying to force a bloom? There are days in this writing life that I wonder if all these words will ever bear the fruit I hope for. Then I raise my heart to the sun and reach down deep to my  roots and soak up life that delights.

Blooms in the sunI nourish on God’s word and remember,

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I let go of the want for a bloom. I rest from the forcing, and I resist the urge to take a weed-wacker and cut the whole thing down!

In what ways have you tried to force the bloom?

Today I am linking up with 5 Minute Friday and Beauty Observed.

Friday Favorites from this week in the Blogosphere:

Lisa Jo Baker writes, “We read this story not just because someone lived it. But because someone faithfully wrote it down.”

Hannah C. Hall shares about the need to refresh spiritually in order to write authentically: “I am putting off the work that my own soul needs, and it needs more Jesus. I want to be so full of Him that what I write on this blog and how I speak to my children and the way I minister to my husband comes from the overflow of Jesus in my life, not from the scrapings on the bottom of the barrel.”

I can so relate to Joanna of The Squirrel’s Diary when she confesses,”I, on the other hand, embody the term “haphazard homemaker.” When I have a plan, I plan my plan, then I plan to implement my plan, and then OH LOOK THAT BOOK LOOKS INTERESTING.”

Karrilee  is counting her blessings with a photography feast for the eyes. Love her pictures!

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