One day you will look back
Reflection by Sarah Yudkin
One day you will look back and see that all along you were blooming.
— Morgan Harper Nichols, All Along You Were Blooming: Thoughts for Boundless Living
This quote has helped me trust that a flower’s journey from seed to blooming is also true for me (and other people, too).
It’s easy to admire a flower and forget that it was once a small seed that gradually bloomed over time with bumps along the way.
I often compare myself to others and can see someone’s external success in any form (career, relationship, financial, emotional maturity, etc.) as evidence I am behind.
What I’ve come to learn is that everyone starts as a seed and journeys through dirt, mud, and rainy conditions in order to bloom into being a unique flower (person). Each flower in the garden is beautiful in its own special way, and there is no need for comparing their beauty.
MHN’s beautiful poem reminds me to stay in my lane and trust in my own growth process as separate from other peoples’.
Sarah Yudkin
Recovering from hustle culture and the urge to rush through life, one day at a time…
What’s Your Story?
In this time of New Year's resolutions, self-help books, video tutorials on how to dance, exercise, cook and eat better, self-improvement is all the rage. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But I find Sarah's reflection – and the line from Morgan Harper Nichols’ poem – a refreshing reminder that we all learn and grow at our own pace, in our own way. And however we bloom, there is beauty in each of us.
For me, it brings to mind Walt Whitman’s preface to Leaves of Grass. While it was copyrighted in 1855, it still feels relevant today.
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men — go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families — re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.
What text speaks to you about you? What words give you the confidence to move in the world in a way that fits you? What enables you to “trust in your own growth process” and appreciate how you are blooming?
Send in your reflection (just 250 words) and we’ll post your story here and on the Building Bridges Word by Word website. Why write? It may help you and others, realize that despite of, or because of, the dirt, the mud, the rain, “all along you were blooming.”
Click on the button below for story guidelines, prompts, and the steps for submitting your reflection. Questions? Email us at buildingbridgeswbw@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!