Bloom Where You Are Planted

Geranium macrorrhizum (big-root geranium) is a great perennial groundcover that is blooming right now. I have the usual pink, as well a magenta, and white (for the white garden, of course.)

Besides wonderfully fragrant leaves, another attribute is that Geranium macrorhizum grows anywhere--sun or shade, wet or dry. This geranium teaches us to "Bloom where you are planted."

We spend our mind moments, our days, our lives grabbing for the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant or just being confused about what the heck we should do.

We could just bloom with love, joy, and patience right here, right now. One of these days, we will learn that when we argue with reality, we lose. So we could drop that inner-wrestling, and transplant love and joy into our lives right now.

Of course, if reality is intolerable (e.g., a job, a relationship), we need to move toward loving ourselves and cultivating joy--and perhaps leaving that situation.

But most of us live lives of high-end samsara*. Life is good. We just want that one other thing. Or we just want this other one thing to go away. We want it badly enough that we wake up in the middle of the night thinking about these very things.

If the other person isn't going to change (and they aren't) or if "it" isn't going to change today (e.g., something regarding our health), then it's time to bloom despite adverse conditions. Just like Geranium macrorrhizum.


*Samsara is the wheel of death and rebirth to which we humans are bound. This includes moment-t0-moment "death" or "gone-ness" of a situation or event, and the immediate rebirth of the next moment as something new unfolds.
(Also called "The Great Mandala" in the Peter, Paul, and Mary song.)