Whenever I am out in the world, the first things I notice are wildflowers.  I marvel at how they appear by the roadside each year, undeterred by the constant thrum of the traffic and its toxic fumes.

I’m starting to realize that I am more like one of those wildflowers than I ever really imagined.  When I do one of those deep life retrospectives, I ask myself how I could possibly still be intact, and even thriving, given the challenges that my spirit and my body have endured.  My only answer is that there are some people, like those darn poppies and wild sweet peas that  that out of stubborn genetics, have the capacity to grow and bloom after a period of rest.

Everyone experiences challenges.  Sometimes our task is to simply get up and start again after a bad day.  Sometimes our tasks require us to tear out our hearts and figure out how to put our pieces back together again.  In both cases, we have to give our hearts and our minds a chance to breathe.  The pause for self-healing is essential to the process.

So stop.  Take a breath.  Enjoy a sunset.  Smell a flower.  Write a blog!  Whatever it takes for you to get some space away.  By resting your mind, you will fertilize the garden of your heart, and you will bloom like those beautiful roadside flower gardens.