Bud Wise

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anaïs Nin

H/T to Laurie Halse Anderson for posting this quote. It reminded me once again what I've known for some time. I once posted one of my own poems that expressed a similar thought--especially if I were to make one word substitute:

Bud Wise
by Joy Renee

A bloom in the womb is a poem life curled
Tight around the pistil of its power.
Does a lily take thought of
The process of its being?
Does a rose not repose in that
Ball of its becoming?
Then let your story incubate
Enfolded in its dreaming,
Until the moment of its glory when
Unfurling reveals its flower.
..._________________...

Whether you're thinking of your life or a poem or a story or any other creative endeavor there is that moment when it's right to transition from the bud and manifest the full glory of its flower and neither fretting with impatience at the slowness of its incubation nor resisting the metamorphosis our of fear of the unknown is helpful or healthy.

I am always doing both. Why can't I hang onto this hard won knowing long enough to see something through to its moment of glory?

Trusting the process is the hardest lesson an artist must learn but it is the most necessary as without it the work is stunted, withered, contrived, stale and lifeless.