Yesterday I watched several flowers fall off a beautiful cherry blossom tree as a strong wind blew across it. Though a beautiful sight, my first thought that it’s sad that flowers fall, was immediately replaced with the thought that some flowers need to fall to make place for new ones. This is true in our life as well. Strong winds come and shake things in our life which seem unfortunate at that time, but these winds come to make space for something new to blossom.

The wind of uncertainty and disruption can significantly change our businesses and professions. Many things which we thought would last a lifetime fall off from our lives. But this also forces us to relook at something new and better ways of doing things. The old way had to go to create new opportunities in our life.

The wind of disagreement and conflict forces us to relook at those relationships that are a constant strain and pull us down. Though painful as it may be, these situations allow us to move beyond some people without whom we may be better off in life, helping create the internal space to build and strengthen the nurturing relationships in our life.

The wind of opinions, judgement and criticism can hurt our ego to no end. Our equanimity gets blown away making us realise how sensitive and egoistic we may be. This creates the opening in us to start reflecting and better understanding ourselves, blossoming into a better person.

The wind of challenges and resistance often blows away our efforts, and no matter how hard we try, we sometimes find our efforts falling by the wayside and we make no progress. Though very frustrating, these strong headwinds force us to drop a narrow and limited way of looking at things, allowing resilience, creativity and innovation to blossom in us.

We fear storms in our life because we fear we will get blown away. It may well be true that some storms may be very difficult to manage. But no matter how strong the storm, we need to constantly remind ourselves that our ability and endurance is always stronger than the storm. Many things will get blown away, but we need to constantly remind ourselves that they are only making space for something better to blossom. And soon we will start smiling at the storms in our life because deep down we will know that they are winds of change that have come to help us blossom.

(Picture-Cherry Blossom trees in Vancouver)