This morning I read a stanza in a poem relating a portion of the writer’s life to the transition from spring to summer. Her early years of new growth and growing roots had now begun to lead into a season of flourishing. Today is my 32nd birthday and I’m beginning to anticipate a season of flourishing for myself. Spring is beautiful. There are green buds and dewy mornings of life vibrating into existence. Life is everywhere, demanding recognition for new growth and rebirth and realization for what we are and who we were created to be. It is struggle and fight breaking into the fabric of existence. The soil of our lives promises to be rich, but not every patch of dirt is as freely giving as the other. The storms of spring are fierce and we must learn to weather them and grow under their tumult and tutelage. And when we do, we learn to find nurturing in the wind and the rain. There is pruning and the removal of the parts of us that would otherwise take too much and affect the whole. And then there is the promise. The universal truth that if we take the rain of education and lived experience - and learn how to bend with the wind of trial - and gracefully accept the revitalizing destruction of a violent storm - and the let the bright sun of those moments in which everything seems to smile at us fill our souls - and the let the fertile soil of the goodness and help of others enrich and empower us to be the fullest versions of ourselves - and see the green buds as promise for better days ahead - and remember that the rainbow after the storm is a secret of what’s to come - we are rewarded with the season of flourishing. Of growth and vibrant fullness. Bright sun and blue skies and the experienced knowledge in how to navigate the storms and find the aftermath even more rewarding than we did before. We are given the gift of abundance. That’s my hope anyway. Something that, in light of the current state of the world and years lived and weathered, feels appropriate and real and possible and right. A hope and promise of abundance.
Gathering friends and strangers around good wine, good times, beautiful music and finding any and all reasons to celebrate. Life grows richer the more we learn to extend out and welcome in the love so widely available in our lives.
Costa Mesa, CA
Late Summer 2023
