Blossoming

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."  – Anais Nin

I recently re-encountered this quote, after many years apart from it, and it still rings true for me: whether we choose the risk to remain tightly closed as a flower bud or the risk to open and blossom into our full potential flower. 

This quote of course has increased meaning for me here in the time of blooming in the natural world around us – the seasons provide such a great source of information through metaphor for our consideration. 

And whether we choose "closed" or "open" as our position, the opportunity exists to examine both (or certainly other) options equally:  What’s the payoff to "closed", to "open"?  And what’s the cost – or the pain, as this quote suggests?

Rethinking this quote this time around, I also wonder: is it such a risk to blossom?  Isn’t what flowers do naturally anyway?  Have you ever known a living flower not to open?

Perhaps it’s less of a real risk for us to blossom, and more of a leap of faith to know that we will blossom in our own way, in our own time, to be our own gorgeous flower.