This post has become a yearly ritual for me.

This year, however, I have been a few days late in publishing it. Maybe it was the cough and cold I’ve been suffering from, but I think not. At first, I simply wasn’t decided on the word/phrase I wanted to take this year. Even when I decided though, I had no reason to give for why I chose that particular phrase. Now I do.

My Phrase of 2016 is In Full Bloom.

I sat with this phrase stuck in my head for almost a week. It filled up my being with myriad impressions and imprints- vibrant, melodious and fragrant. All brimming with joyous abandon the way flowers are. My ears were literally abuzz with the fullness of all the phrase represented. Such a din did it create that I was lost- happily so- in it. I had no wish to emerge from the bliss of that feeling at all. Perhaps that’s the reason for this delay in penning this post. I don’t really know.

I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

In Full Bloom is a phrase that brings riotous, audacious, dancing, impudent flowers to mind. Bursting with vitality and vibrancy, flamboyant and effervescent with life. They are so vivacious and lively that their very presence is a command, an obligation, a compulsion, to be fully alive as well!

They don’t hold themselves back or keep their best in reserve for later. There is no later for them. They know they get but one chance to show all there is to show. Some get but an hour after a decade of wait. When they take center stage, therefore, there is no nonsense about them being shy and saying they forgot their music home. They come prepared to burst forth with all they have- and they do. And guess what? They dazzle everyone, without giving a damn if they do!

I am in awe of flowers.

Not because of their colors,

but because even though they

have dirt in their roots,

they still grow.

They still bloom.

~ D. Antoinette Foy

Whether they will dazzle their audience or not, whether other blooms will out-perform them or not or even whether anyone will notice them or not… are not their concerns. They sing the song they know.. and they sing it with all their might. That’s their job… and they do it in homage to Him that planted the song in their heart in the first place. To not sing it, they know, would be an insult to His faith in them.

To be your most beautiful when In Full Bloom you would need to be robust with vitality in every way. To be vigorous, you would need to nurture yourself with all that is good. Simultaneously, you must ruthlessly reject everything that drains you of your energy and verve. You must be convinced that you deserve nothing but the best the universe has to offer and that it is your duty to look for it and to strive for it.

When you are In Full Bloom, don’t distract yourself from blooming by thinking of the morrow. Tomorrows never come, do they? If they never come, how can they exert a malevolent influence over your life and fortunes? Moreover, why would they change their nature when you have something good going on for you? How come you believe one thing about tomorrows when something good is happening but are convinced of the opposite when you’re going through a lean phase? It is the same tomorrow, isn’t it?

Everyday is a day to dwell In Full Bloom. You were born for it; you were primed for it; you were designed for it. Everything in you was put in to help you reach that state of Bloom. Are you going to defy the Divine plan and put forth a half-hearted performance? It doesn’t bear thinking of!

The words that make the rose bloom were also said to me.

The words told to the cypress to make it grow strong and straight.

The instructions whispered to the jasmine.

And whatever was said to the sugarcane to make it sweet.

And to the pomegranate flowers to make them blush.

The same thing is being said to me.

~ Rumi

While these thoughts and many more like them crystallized slowly in the crucible of my consciousness, I waited. When they were done doing what they needed to do, I promptly fell in love with them!

I wish you a year full of hardy resilience and tenacious gumption, dear reader. May you find your voice and let it be heard In Full Bloom. And when you are blooming for all you are worth, don’t look around to see if anyone is appreciating you or not. It would distract you, make you lose your voice and take away your will to sing. Very bad strategy, right?

A very Happy 2016 to you and yours!

My Phrase for 2016
Picture Mine

My Phrase for 2016