Bloom

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. That makes it hard to plan the day."

--e.b. white.



.......
As I mentioned, before, Roomie and I are focusing on a theme each month and doing small experiments and projects to explore that term. March was "focus." April is "show up."

Of course I have my own interpretations of this phrase based on my busy schedule and plansplansplans intentionintentionintention; I almost manipulated my theme this month to fit my life. I have been asking around about what the phrase "show up" means in people's lives. It was refreshing to have a few different views.

I signed an email about this topic, "With dogwoods (and snow?)" because it has been Spring for the past week or so, but snowed/sleeted yesterday.

One friend wrote back not about being proactive or active or polished or present in vague terms, but rather about dogwood winters and blackberry winters-- those strange combinations of what is expected and what is happening.

He took my offhand comment and wove it into these images that served a couple of cool purposes. This reaction served not only as his way of actually "showing up" to read the detail in my email, but also as a metaphor for "showing up" and taking what is real, even if it's snowing when you expect to wear your sassiest dress.


I hope to show up when the world is both challenging and seductive.