and then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk to bloom - Anais Nin

we can flower in an instant, as soon as the pain of not flowering and not loving becomes greater than our fears. we struggle to hold onto what is familiar and we struggle when the the flow of inner comfort suddenly feels more hurtful than leaping toward the unknown.

.............yet there are no rules of when to leap.

like a rose bloom that has grown so tight then has the inability to open because this flower has grown into itself, we have the chance to tighten but we then have the opportunity to bloom again, again , and again. Even spirits , if turned in on themselves enough, may grow accustomed to being closed. But unlike these rose buds that are removed and thrown out, the human spirit can be shut down for years, and still, it can take only one breath from our true center to flower .

the risk to bloom can seem so insurmountable beforehand and so inevitably freeing once the threshold of struggle is crossed......