Mother Nature is on trend...even she knows 2020 is the year of COVID.
But that begs the question...which came first, the flower or the virus? Or, more likely, I suspect that both have long been, up until recently, harmoniously co-existing in Nature, largely under the radar ('til humans unleashed the viral beast), and perhaps it took one to notice the other?
I pass this tree on a regular basis, yet this was the first time I happened to find myself so enchanted by these bright, prickly blossoms in bloom like so. And I couldn't help but notice the similarity to the COVID virus renderings that have become etched into most of our brains this year, thanks to the media.
The irony is that I likely wouldn't have noticed the blossom if we weren't in a pandemic, mostly still in quarantine mode, where time spent outside has become a rare luxury and something to really savor with one's full presence. In pre-COVID times, I would have likely just passed right by without even noticing, without bothering to look up, caught up in my daily grind.
The other irony being that one of these signifies blossoming, growth, new life and possibilities. While the latter has become a harbinger of fear, uncertainty, suffering and death.
And yet, what if, just as I noticed today, if we could hold both the gravity and the awe of the situation simultaneously, and realize that both, in their own way, can open us up to new possibilities and relating to the world around us differently, (perhaps even more skillfully?), if we allow ourselves to lean into the uncertainty and the opportunities it might bring with our fully engaged presence and some extra spaciousness to fire up our innate creativity and resourcefulness?
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