Late bloomers

Photo by Marivi Pazos at Unsplash

By Susanne Liebich

Signs of life, touches of spring ... Crocuses, witch hazel, magnolia, longer days, at last, spring has arrived.... The last clumps of snow have dissolved and spring has sprung a few weeks later than we would like…. late blooming for sure.  In my life, I know I sometimes expect things to happen at a certain time and then they don’t. Even as I raised my children, I sometimes wondered, why hadn't they reached a certain milestone when they were "supposed to"? In some ways, they were late bloomers.  And yet this blossoming does not prevent them from reaching their life's goals.  Perhaps the extra time needed for growth will prevent early burnout or jumping into a career they dislike. In my own career, I have been developing and expanding my interest in movement for many decades. And yet, it's only been in the last few years that I have fully committed myself to making it my full time work, my passion, my vocation.  I would definitely consider myself a late bloomer. My own father left the corporate world at 60 in order to start his own business, in which he is still active at age 86.  I see possibilities of “late blooming” all around me, in the elderly students I teach who have learned a new and challenging step, the Nia students who perhaps are learning to feel good in their bodies for the first time after years of judgement, and the children who struggle with disability and mobility issues and yet can exude joy and emotion in moving to the music after many months of rehabilitation.  There is a certain confidence that comes with late blooming, and it’s one which is borne from spontaneity, lack of expectation, openness and love.  I have made a decision to honor this late blooming, and to see how my life will unfold in its own “natural time”, a Nia term which I now understand better on a personal level.  We are not in a rush to the finish line.  Let us enjoy the process of blooming, and take time to appreciate the everyday miracle of life.