How did the rose ever open its heart
And give the world all its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its being,
Otherwise, we all remain
Too frightened.
— Hafiz
Between the two inner realities of “Who we are.” And “Who we are not, yet” there is an edge. This edge is the dividing territory between the bud and the rose. Once we have crossed over our edge, the rose becomes the reality of “Who we are”. We stand in our new full-bloom splendor full of confidence, stunned by our beauty and wonder, What was all the hub bub?
To evolve into the leaders we are capable of becoming, we must become adept at journeying across our edges. To use Hafiz’s imagery, we’ve got to find a way to journey from bud to rose. Our edge is the place where we stop, gripped by fear. We are tempted to stay in the reliable, comfortable, status quo of the tight bud that never opens to it’s full potential.
To bloom we must recognize when we are at an edge. It is immensely valuable to understand the specific nature of the edges we you are up against. In this way, the emotional intensity of the edge doesn’t scare us into believing that…”Oh no, this is not meant for me.” In fact, at our edges, it is pretty much guaranteed that there will be inner saboteur voices that demand, in no uncertain terms, that we stay a bud. Please remember with equally firm conviction that these voices are not your Truth. With consciousness of the edge, we can discern the saboteur voices and support ourselves in crossing the edge insuring success.
Techniques for crossing over:
- Champion yourself with encouragement and gentleness.
- Call yourself forth with fierce remembrance of your burning power.
- Find the part of yourself that has the resources to cross and have that part get it done.
- Forbid yourself from crossing. (I mean it, tell yourself you are not to bloom, you don’t get to change…you will be surprised how much energy you can muster.)
May we shine forth sun upon each other as we gracefully cross over our edges from bud to rose.
