What makes you bloom?

I just witnessed an incredible thing. Yeast blooming. Yeast is an amazing thing to me. It is a living organism that seems to come alive when it is warm and has something to eat; sugar. When the conditions are right it blooms. It takes some time to wake up but when it does, wow! I don't know if you are catching my awe in all of this, but I feel like a little kid every time I watch it magically do it's thing. I think that you all should go to your pantry and try it....seriously.

Watching the yeast made me wonder what makes me bloom. What does it take for me to become alive and full of energy and passion? I think that I actually know. It's taken me a long time, years in fact, for me to realize what truly makes me tick, what makes my heart beat faster. It's knowing that I have something that could potentially impact the world and it's just because of who I was created to be. I'm not unique in this way either, each of us has this inside of us and for most of us it has been sleeping for a a long time or is just starting to wake up. Specifically, I use words to inspire and impact through writing and speaking. How that thing blooms in each of us is different and we all live it out in our own unique way.

Sometimes, like the yeast, our blooming requires a specific environment that is conducive to it actually happening. We need to feel like we are believed in. We need to feel like we have something to offer. We need to feel like we have people on our team. We need to feel like we can try and fail. We need to feel like our role is vital and irreplaceable. From experience, I know that these things definitely don't always line up at the same time in most cases but every little thing helps give us the courage needed to take steps toward blooming.

I know that there are days, even seasons, when I don't feel like I'm blooming at all or I feel that I have nothing to offer. I feel exhausted, drained and uninspired. I feel alone and even lost. This is when I know that I need community. People who encourage me. People who believe in me. People who care what I become in life. People that need me. People that I need. The very essence of each of us wants to be apart of community and I believe we truly become who we are meant to be in the environment of community. When you have people in your life that need what only you have and vice versa, it creates a desire to truly be the best version of yourself. It requires work (energy) to bloom, but it doesn't even feel like it sometimes because the blooming is so fun and the result is beauty.

Do you know what makes you bloom?