The Risk to Bloom

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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And then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk to bloom. – Anais Nin

I am not the best bloomer. I truly want to bloom and flourish and thrive. I want the world to hear my heart’s song. I want to release the pain of not being seen, of not being understood, and not sharing stories. That being said, I struggle to trust my still small voice. I fear ridicule. My attention scatters and remaining tight in the bud appears to be my only choice. I wear out doing everything but blooming and become too tired. This is the frame for my personal blooming experience. Within that frame, I have a few thoughts about the risk to bloom.

Blooming When It Matters

Blooming is more difficult when we really care about what we are doing. It is easy to halfway show up and fail when we are not invested. When we invest. The stakes are higher. Failure hurts more deeply. When we give our all; emotions and sweat and effort make blooming personal. Our edge looks more like a cliff from which we could fall rather than sunny trail leading somewhere glorious. Blooming when it matters, when we have a lot to lose, when we are singing in full voice, when our bare soft underbelly is exposed is the only way our unique gifts will be shared with the world.

Blooming Can Hurt Deeply

When we risk and show our true selves, all our petals extended and our fragrance fully wafting in the breeze, we take the chance that our true selves will be criticized. Judgement can hurt. Blooming causes old patterns to change. Blooming means we stop behaving in ways that hurt us. Blooming means we ask more of life than simple survival. Blooming is when the desire to thrive. Knowing we have the capacity to thrive overtakes the pain of existence.

Living In Full Bloom

Living in full bloom looks like knowing when to rest and when to run. Living in full bloom looks like knowing our story and sharing it with the world. Living in full bloom looks like living compassionately and lovingly because we are grounded in confidence and uniqueness. Living in full bloom looks like abundance and generosity. We are enough. We have enough. We bloom for the world.

https://kitt.global/may-15-the-risk-to-bloom-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/