Rain can cause a flood, and rain can cause a super bloom. Like everything in life, you can judge one of these options as bad and one as good. However, both are simply effects of rain. They are not bad or good, even though many people treat them that way.
What images pop into your head if I ask you if your life is rainy or sunny? Do you see them both as neutral, or is one “positive” and one “negative”? What if I ask you if your life is flooding or blooming? Do you have a judgment about how your life is going? Do you think it should be going a particular direction? Can you let go of your stories and simply see your life as flowing the way it is flowing?
In the midst of a flood or natural disaster, it can be easy to shift into judgment. “Why is this happening to me?” It can be hard to accept change, especially if it comes at a high cost financially, emotionally, or physically, but out of this change comes the super bloom. Flooding clears out what is no longer needed so that new seeds can bloom. When you accept all that happens as part of the flow of life, you allow the new growth to appear. When you judge what is happening and try to force things back the way they were, the new growth cannot happen because you are too focused on the old.
Today has been alternating between rainy and cloudy with occasional sun. The yellow flowering bush outside my window reflects this. Before lunch, I took a picture of it in overcast weather. After lunch, I took another picture in sun and wind. Because of the camera filter, the bush looks very similar in both pictures, but the background looks very different. In life, we have a choice of what background to use.
Last night at a Songbird event, I saw Vicky Combs, one of the past Songbird practitioners. Whenever I see her at Songbird, I tell those around me that we would never have bought the Songbird if she hadn’t told me that it was for sale. This is the “positive” super bloom story. I could equally say that Vicky betrayed me because she had planned to help me, but had to go back to work earlier than planned. This, among other things, made the remodel was more challenging than I had expected. That story would be the “negative” flood story. I could also tell the stories without judgment, “Vicky told me the building was for sale. I bought it and remodeled it.” I could simplify this even further and just say, “I bought the building,” but that sounds boring. Telling stories makes life more exciting.
You can make up any kind of story you want about anything in your life. Your life can be a romance or a horror story, a tragedy or a drama. Telling different stories about the same incident is a great way to become aware of your filters. How easy is it for you to tell the same story through different filters? How easy it is for you to simply say, “It rained. It flooded. We had a super bloom.”
Once you can tell your story without judgement, then you can choose to add in other elements. Consciously create the stories you want. Let your life flood and bloom without judgment!