Listening to her heart, the rhododendron was at ease,
even though the work was complex and new.
She trusted, not as one trusts a mere belief,
but as one trusts from experience,
that the next step would make itself known.
Sometimes she had to stretch herself, to reach
higher and farther than she thought she could.
Often she couldn’t see how things would turn out.
But it was the challenges that made the work fun.
Just days ago, after all, she was a green bud.
And now, here she was, her petals pink and broad,
glistening in the morning sun.
Had you asked her, she would not have been able
to tell you how a bud transforms into a flower.
She didn’t even know then that a flower
was what she would become.
She only knew that life’s patterns
were drawn in wisdom and love and that her task
was to listen for the harmonies and to let them guide her.
And so she worked with a sense of spacious ease,
centered and content, and filled with quiet joy.