“If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.” – Sir Isaac Newton
If you are anything like me, there are days you simply want inner peace now or you want the change you desire so you can manifest your goal now. And in those moments, you really can’t see the advantage of practising any kind of patience for the long vision of fulfilling your dream. The turtle or snail’s pace of waiting for the ‘gold’ seems interminable and can give us such grief. At least, this is a mental habit I have had to outgrow!
Spring flowers, as we’ve been speaking about, offer us such beautiful and clear metaphors of living into our potential, of the process of coming into full bloom. This spring I’ve been curious about tulips in a new way and largely because of the gardeners in my life who teach me about the subtleties that go beyond my own practice of buying bulbs, planting them and waiting for the colourful bloom the following year.
A friend writes, “growing saleable tulips from offsets requires a year or more of growth before plants are large enough to flower. Tulips grown from seeds often need five to eight years of growth before plants are flowering size. Commercial growers usually harvest the tulip bulbs in late summer and grade them into sizes; bulbs large enough to flower are sorted and sold, while smaller bulbs are sorted into sizes and replanted, for sale in the future.” Even the tulip knows it takes quite a significant investment over a steady period of time before the pleasure and joy of coming into full bloom manifests! A lot of time is dedicated to growing to the right size and having the right characteristics. They don’t rush themselves to bloom – ‘forcing it’ only weakens the longevity and strength of the bloom.
I have noted a few lessons the tulips teach us about being patient for ‘our time to bloom’ :
- Watch for unrealistic expectations that cause you unnecessary grief and upset. Like tulips, your potential isn’t going to manifest within a few months.
- Create goals and visions and hold them lightly. The Universe might have something in mind outside your mental definition of growth and happiness. But create goals and take action.
- Practise non-attachment to outcomes. Expect the unexpected.
- Remember what really matters to you even in the face of ‘life happening’. Trust that what you really want will manifest.
- Nurture optimism and inner faith. You will bloom, even if you have to endure a few winters first.
- Give yourself a break and sit down and ‘smell the roses’. Pushing and forcing the outcome won’t make the blooming come any faster or better.
- Cultivate a practice of gratitude and acceptance of life as it is. It will change as soon as you accept the moment.
For me, becoming a patient person has summoned perseverance, resolve and discipline in the absence of a dream fulfilled. It has also called out of me a rigorous trust in the face of seemingly too many ‘winters’ before the ‘gold’ manifests or the blooming finally is experienced. When dreams are aligned with Universal Love and Light, they will manifest … but it may take years of dedicated growth and right action.
Why be patient? The blooming will be colourful, spectacular and bring incredible joy to everyone who is touched by this dream – most of all you!