Revelations Beyond the Bloom

This morning I was sitting on my porch looking at some cut branches of dogwood. I put them in the vase about a month ago and watched the dogwood flowers cycle through and fall to the table.

A week or so ago I cleaned up the petal detritus, gave them a fresh cut, and popped them in clean water.

Their branches continued to sprout sweet little green leaves that would mature into a stunning sunset as they died and dropped, making way for continued green growth.

Where the flowers had once been, there was now space to see the glowing bright yellow lichen covering the branches.

This made me think of my practice, or any practice really.

We create space, using time to reveal things that have always existed but have been shrouded by something we may deem as the main event.

I am sometimes surprised that the so called ‘main event’ is just a moment in the sustained life & beauty underneath it all. Even with change, transformation and death like the petals waiting to be cleaned or pulled back to earth with the wind, there is always life continuing to give if we are attentive.

This is practice, the cyclical nature of it all- things decompose to reveal what’s beneath. It’s up to us not to focus solely on the bloom but be attentive to everything that’s happening around, behind and connected to the bloom— Giving ourselves a chance to notice how much revelation exists in these transitions and changes.