“The Flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bees come.”

This is such a beautiful quote from Mark Nepo’s, The Book of Awakening. He states so eloquently this idea that flowers do not try to be what the bees want, but it is when the flower just blooms that it is flooded with the love of the bees.

He writes, “like a tulip whose blossomed petal is the exact shape of the bee, out own self-actualization attracts host of loving others more real than our fantasies.”

I have heard, and read countless times that in order to find and experience love from others I must first love myself.

And okay I get that, it makes complete sense. I intellectually grasp this, but I still find myself so desperately looking and seeking the love of others. I looked for someone to fill a void within me, to make me feel whole. To make me feel like I mattered, I belonged.

I become so willing to reinvent and redesign myself, believing that is how I get people to love me. I found myself hiding parts of me like my sensitivity, while elaborating other areas like my sarcastic humor.

Mark goes on to write “Though we discover and experience joy with others, our capacity for joy is carried like a pod of nectar in our very own breast. I now believe that our deepest vocation is to root ourselves enough in this life that we can open our hearts to the light of experience, and so, bloom.”

And that is exactly where I am now. I have begun to move past this need for love from others and have found that I have a beautiful light within me. When I allow it shine I stop looking for love from the outside.

When I do that, that love comes.

It is in this blooming that we allow our light to shine. It is through blooming that our True Self, and beauty begins to blossom. And that is when love will come, not because you’re pretending, or because you’re “acting” but because they love you, just as you are, unconditional. And that’s all we really want, or at least all I want.

So are you ready to let go of the dreams and fantasies and just bloom?

 

 

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Apprentice Editor: Kimby Maxson/Editor: Travis May

Photo: Provided by author