Planting daffodils under the cherry tree yesterday, I was thinking about how the bulbs need to rest in the cold, dark space of the stilled earth all winter long in order to bloom in spring. They need a phase of dormancy.
I think dormancy, in my own life’s unfolding, has seemed like waiting. Needless waiting. Why can’t I just get on with it? I know what I want. Why hasn’t it manifested yet?
Turns out, as usual, that nature might reveal some insight into the questions that we find ourselves asking about our own lives.
We can see—with bulbs that blossom into vibrant flowers after a period of resting and waiting—that something even more beautiful may come from acceptance of this process. After all, a daffodil bulb is not much to look at (and they actually don’t even taste good to those tenacious foragers squirrrels!). But a daffodil pushing up through the snow in late March, green shoot heralding golden petals? Exquisite! So gloriously uplifting after a season where there’s no visible growth in the outside world.
The Anglo-French word dormir, from which dormancy is derived, means “to sleep.” Hold on, you’re probably thinking, isn’t the yogic path all about awakening? Certainly. But by going deep, and entering into stillness, we can emerge so much more fully expressed. Think yoga nidra—yogic sleep. It’s not an unconscious, shut-down state, but one of supreme relaxation and receptivity into All that Is. By entering such states of being we realize our True Nature. I call it our Mindful Nature—aware, awake, alive to Be-ing.
So, I’m shifting the beliefs I’ve held about dormancy in my own life. I’m asking, What do I need to put to rest right now? Relationships that aren’t serving my life’s purpose? Habitual patterns that keep me small, instead of allowing me to be expansive? Pushing for results instead of entering into inner wisdom to see what unfolds?
How about you? What will you choose to “put to bed” for awhile, to allow something truly beautiful and inspired to push up from the depths as the seasons change?
Please leave your comments and aha’s below.
There’s still time to go deep and rest into Be-ing, to allow something beYOUtiful can emerge, on the Mindful Nature Day Retreat in Apple Valley on October 30. Register here.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you Melissa. This is just beautiful.
I had to be “hit over the head” before I realized I got what I was really yearning for all along. Now, finally, the expansiveness is starting to happen.
Beautifully written, Milissa. Thanks.
Right on, sister !