The bud stands for all things

‘The bud stands for all things, even for those things that don’t flower, for everything flowers from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on the brow, of the flower and retell in words and touch it is lovely until it flowers again from within of self blessing.’

(Galway Kinnell)

In modern western culture, sight is our dominant sense and how things look can dominate over how we sense things from the inside. Being held to such external ideals, especially of ‘maiden’ spring like beauty can steal the joy of being in an ageing or injured body or one that simply doesn’t conform to the narrow mainstream ideal.

In ‘The Joyous Body’ Clarissa Pinkola-Estes writes, ‘the body speaks through its colour and temperature, the coldness of non-conviction, the heat of arousal, through its leaping heart and rising hope; is valued for its articulate ability to register immediate reaction, to feel profoundly, to sense ahead. To confine beauty and value of the body to anything less than this true magnificence is to force the body to live without its rightful spirit’.

Coming to our inner experience through movement, creativity, sound or silence can bring us home to that which lifts our heart and sparks the vital spirit. Cyclical wisdom reveals cycles within cycles, the monthly new moon, the daily incoming tide and our own moment by moment inhalation each contain the rising energy that is life’s invitation to reclaim our spirit for new growth. Each are teachers reminding us springtime belongs to us all regardless of age, enticing us to explore what stirs the ‘yes’ within, gently coaxing us to reclaim that which makes us feel alive. From the ground of this embodied ‘yes’ place/space we can stir the sleeping aspects of ourselves that yearn to manifest our unique ‘yes’ in the world, knowing that our blossoming of self-blessing invites the same in others and that now more than ever the world needs that re-membering.

Ali Rose is a Registered Integrative and Somatic Therapist, combining talking, clothed touch and movement to support you physically, emotionally and psychologically. Click HERE to find out more about her individual therapy work.