The unfolding of the flowers....

It is amazing to me how many ways we can be unfolded just like a new flower. At night when the world is dark and the air is cold, we close up... So too can we during the day in a cold environment. But in one act of kindness, or love or generosity we unfold one petal at a time eventually with enough love and the right environment revealing our most beautiful attributes, our core...our heart.

This love comes to us in many strange ways. Perhaps it was a beautiful day, the landscape of which took your breath away. Or perhaps a smile from a stranger, that reached all the way up to the strangers eyes lighting them up as their heart recognized yours and said hello. But it is in the measure of a hug, that precise blanket of warm space shared with another that our hearts really talk to one another.

A good hug can carefully unwrap each petal previously wrapped so tight in the cold. It can reveal our naked hearts, and raw emotions. It can instantly bring forth tears that we didn't know we had waiting to be shared. And if tended to those tears cathartic though they are can turn to tears of joy.

I had just such a hug yesterday. I tried to fight the tears that came forth (as is my nature), but they wouldn't be deterred and what was revealed left the giver of the hug shaking it was so profound. This connection doesn't just spring from a long term relationship, nor just from a friend, it can be found in the most unusual ways. If we see it, recognize it for what it is we can have a moment or several of them even, and walk away from that simple hug with enough love in our hearts to make us glow with joy.

I am grateful for that hug. For that moment, when my love and my joy was restored. Thank you J.

Here's to many hugs for you, and for me and for the resulting joy that can color a world in beautiful gardens of flowers opened; reaching for the sun even during the storm...

LadyMuse