Open Things— Flowers
Open things are the most beautiful—open flowers, open eyes, open hearts, open minds.
In this inaugural article, I examine what it means to offer a unique contribution to the universe and how we, like flowers, have to be “open” to effectively do so. As we do and fulfill our purpose, we live lives of true beauty.
According to Reference.com, there are over 400,000 different types of flowering plants in the world. I’m positive I’ve never seen them all but every flower that I have seen looked the most beautiful after it blossomed.
There are so many unique types of flowers, each with its own signature form, colors, size, and detail. The diversity of beauty can be breathtaking. Even the fragrance can be spell-binding.
Although it’s easy to think that flowers blossom only for our enjoyment, when a flower opens up it is really driven by function.
The Function of Flowers
A flower blooms to attract insects in order to propagate its species and maintain balance in nature. The species is maintained through cross-pollination when birds or other insects such as bees or butterflies visit the flowers for nectar and then spread the pollen it inadvertently picks up to other nearby flowers.
All of nature benefits because a strong presence of flowers provides nectar, maintains the bee population, and feeds many animals. But, if it remains closed to the physical universe around it then the flower will never fulfill its purpose. Everyone loses.
Yet a flower does fulfill the needs of the ecosystem—it’s physical universe—in its own particular way. It follows the plan given to it. In so doing, it treats its own needs as secondary. The flower indirectly benefits by first offering a contribution to the physical universe around it. Beautiful isn’t it?
The Beauty of Purpose
Speaking of beauty, have you ever noticed how some plants are really nothing to look at when they are not in bloom?
My property near Seattle has several Rhododendrons in the backyard. My wife has shared her disdain of them several times with me. To her, they just look ugly ten to eleven months of the year. And, although I wouldn’t consider them awful, they really are pretty plain.
But when those buds start to unfurl, to present their offering to the universe, that’s when they look utterly radiant. It would be difficult for anyone to not truly appreciate their beauty.
Flowers have a valuable offering, a purpose that only they can bring. No other creatures, as amazing as they are in their own right, can do what the flower does. The whole thing, the whole design, the whole system of nature requires it’s contribution. And just as all of nature has a purpose so do we. As Dr. Wayne Dyer says:
“Everything in the universe has a purpose. Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you.”
A Beautiful Metaphor
In the not-so-distant past, my life was pretty ugly. I was closed-up, conserving my energy, and focused on my own preservation. I was offering no contribution to benefit the rest of humanity. I was a little selfish and probably not super fun to be around. I did not have, at that time, the kind of life that people look at and think of as beautiful.
But as I’ve recognized my purpose and come to understand what my contribution looks like I’ve blossomed.
As I give what only I can give to others I open up and show my colors to the world around me. I can finally be appreciated—and will be appreciated—because my real colors will be visible and a person’s real colors are ALWAYS beautiful.
It’s when we try to conceal our colors or try to present someone else’s colors that we lose the appreciation of others. The real you, in full array, IS beautiful. You just have to find YOUR contribution and let yourself bloom.
I believe people are drawn to me more than I have ever experienced in my life. And why wouldn’t they? My life is beginning to look beautiful. And, like the flower, I have a contribution that they need that only I can provide. People are drawn to a needed contribution like that like bees to pollen.
Beauty is a certain function of purpose, of the “rightness” of a thing. It’s about truth.
If you feel like your life hasn’t been a very beautiful thing for others to look at—or for you to experience—maybe it’s because you’re not functioning according to the truth you are supposed to be living. You’re in self-preservation mode and spending all of your energy on protecting your image. The irony is, we are only made complete, made beautiful, when we open up and give to the universe in the way only we can. We have to submit to the truth God has for us.
Take Away
Take today and examine what you have to offer others. Not just anything but YOUR specific thing that you know you were made to give. The thing that’s fun, that comes easy to you, that others marvel at you for making it look so easy—the thing that really benefits people—and really make yourself vulnerable to others with it.
Your life will become more and more complete and you will begin to radiate a joy that others can’t help but think of as beautiful.
This is the first entry of a four-part series, “Open Things Are The Most Beautiful.”
Aaron Force is a blogger from Seattle, Washington. He writes to educate others about the nature of an expanded consciousness to evolve humanity. Aaron unexpectedly experienced his own profound awakening and ego transcendence in 2015 and soon understood that the qualities of his own experience (a greater expansion and evolution in his life) could be applied to mankind collectively.