Nature has always been my guide. Springtime is my reminder to be vulnerable.
Like the new leaves unfurling themselves. Flowers bursting forth. Seeds opening to their inner guidance.
Vulnerability. It’s like a dirty word to many of us humans. Nature does it effortlessly.
Consciously and unconsciously we tend to avoid it at all costs. Showing our underbelly. Soft spot. Raw place. Pain. Hurt.
I thought I always had to be tough. Not show any sign of weakness. I couldn’t let anyone know how I really felt about anything. It was way too dangerous. They might not like me. They might outright reject me. Abandon me. Hurt me.
Years ago a friend invited me to speak my truth. I don’t remember the particulars. What I do remember is that when I finally got honest, he could feel me more. I was still alive. He was still there.
He commented on how much more strength in me he could feel then. How it takes more courage to be honest. In my truth. My real.
As I felt more deeply into this place, I could sense it too. It required way more courage for me to be vulnerable than to fake being strong when I really wasn’t.
He could feel me more. He also liked what he felt in me more than when I was pretending. Staying shallow. Aloof. Fake.
I could feel me more too. I felt exposed. Tender. Expanded. Cautious. Open.
I can still remember the exact moment it dropped in that I could also be strong and courageous being vulnerable. It still feels amazing every time I remember.
It’s that same kind of strength and courage I see everyday as the new little flowers push themselves up out of the ground. That determination to reach the light. That fragile tender shoot bursting upward.
Risking everything to be exactly what it is. Alive. Rich. Beautiful. Following its own inner knowing to be exactly what it has come to be in the world.
Vulnerability is the path to being truly alive.
Are you willing to live life? Live Love? Fiercely?
I am.
