As small business owners, and especially as creative small business owners, it’s often so easy to get lost in the “next” – the next stage of our business, meeting our next goals, fulfilling the next project. Most often, the meeting of one “next” turns into the creation of another. We cross an item off of our to do list and run to the next one, and the end of one project means the start of another. With our focus on the future, how often are we missing the “now”? If you’re anything like me … it’s often. Those every day moments that make up the work needed to meet a goal are often lost or swept away in favor of the celebration of completion.
But how much life are we spending getting there? Are we wasting it all, thinking it’s less important because those days are spent working towards a goal instead of enjoying the fruition of one? Let’s face it – if we’re only enjoying the completion, then we’ll always be in search of the next goal. The next celebration. The next future. We’ll be spending our days in search of and dreaming about the future while missing the present. If what we have at this very moment isn’t good enough, worth celebration, or enough to say “I live a good life. I love my life”, then I think it’s time to reevaluate. After all, isn’t today just one piece of the future we were dreaming of before?
In an effort to slow down, I started really paying attention to all around me. We are in the middle of spring here in the Northeast and the flowers in our yard are in various stages of blooming. As I looked at all of the buds, I had a realization. Yes, bloomed flowers are beautiful, but for me, the beauty is in the blooming. I love flowers the most as they are making their way to their goal of being full bloomed flowers. I love them most before they are about to bloom, before they are about to open up, and just before they are about to be what they are meant to become. They are beautiful in their present state, and that is more beautiful to me than their future.
My lesson? My life is blooming. It is beautiful today. It is meaningful today. It is worth enough today. Sure, our kitchen may be not be renovated. I may still be working on crossing off everything on that never ending to do list. That’s all okay, because each of those details make today the day that it is. They make me the person that I am, my life everything that it is, and everything that it will be. My life is blooming. And that’s where the beauty is.
Do you feel like this is you, too? Are you blooming in the most beautiful way, but afraid you’re missing it? Join in on my June “Beauty in the Blooming” blog tour! Brew that tea, put on your favorite music, and write a little something about loving the now, living in the moment, and enjoying life for what it is, today!
Here are the details:
Beauty in the Blooming Blog Tour – June 28th
1. Write a blog post about living in the now, and loving life today. It can be why you are living in the now. How you are living in the now. How you got to living in the now. How hard it is sometimes to live in the now. Whatever speaks to you. It can be written, through photos, video, whatever! It can include printables, further reading, or whatever else you feel like including.
2. Post your blog anytime before June 27th. Send me your link (to melissa@print-therapy.com), and I’ll include it a link to it on our “Beauty is in the Blooming” blog post of June 28th that will be a tour guide to everyone’s posts. We’re also releasing a limited edition art print and we’ll include links to the tour guide for potential buyers to see.
3. I’ll send you some fun blooming graphics to include in your post, if you so wish to use them (but certainly do not need to!).
4. We’ll spread the love to social media with a special hashtag #beautyintheblooming on Instagram and Twitter. Not a blogger but want to still play along? Use our hashtag in your social media posts and share photos, quotes, and thoughts about how beautiful the blooming is, and what it means to live in the now!
Let’s share the love! The love of today, the love of the now, and the love of ourselves – blooming one lovely moment at at time.
Share with us in the comments-what are you loving in your life right now?
