In books or movies, we all root for the characters that turn their lives around. Usually we see them simply existing in that first chapter or in those opening scenes, perhaps unaware that there’s something better for them or just coming awake to that realization.
People are like that too. We have seasons in our lives where we’re just existing, surviving. Perhaps we’ve suffered an illness or a heartbreak or a disappointment. Whatever it is, we’ve started to shrink. It’s like our spirit has literally contracted inside us.
As I wander through my garden this spring, the new season feels like the perfect metaphor for my characters…and well, me. I am thriving. I’ve had my share of all of the above, but I have found the Holy Grail that contains the healing waters needed to nourish me and bring me back to life. And the good stuff has come pouring in. My spirit has started expanding like new buds on my English rose bush until there are thousands of them literally within days.
Happiness is thriving.
I’ve had some interesting conversations with people lately, and it’s pretty obvious what stage they are in. Surviving or existing is tough. The skies feel constantly cloudy, there’s little passion in our lives, and we often walk around feeling confused or overwhelmed. Then we find that internal Holy Grail—that sense of our true nature and our divine purpose. As someone who’s changed her entire life in the last few years, I can say firsthand that this stage takes courage. But we receive glimpses of that golden cup along the way when we are tired and want to give up. In those moments, we realize we don’t want to go back to where we came from. Just surviving and existing isn’t enough. We are made for so much more. Once we know how to drink the healing waters from that golden cup all of the time, we start to thrive. Everything changes, both inside and out.
Where are you in your human experience? It takes real courage to look, and sometimes we are blind to where we are, especially when we’re in survival and existing mode. While mired in this stage, we suffer from numbed senses because of all the pain we have left unresolved inside ourselves.
My current heroine in The Chocolate Garden is going through all of these steps, and as the writer, her best friend, it’s a privilege and an honor to watch her journey and transformation as she starts thriving again. The same is true for the “real” people in my own circle who journey with me from time to time. The same is true for myself.
Take a moment to think about what thriving looks like in your life. Once you do, hold the vision and start moving toward it. It will find you, and you will find it.
I can promise you that if you allow the golden cup to nourish you, you will be happier than you’ve ever been. Thriving. What an incredible word. What an incredible state of being.