“Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still” Chinese Proverb

Speaking to my almost teen daughter the other night, we were talking about blogging, she has finally decided that my blog, might be good enough for her to invest a few minutes reading what I have written; that is the articles that her and I have not co-authored.I asked her to pick a topic for the next piece and she thought that growth would be a good idea.  Specifically about how she is so frustrated about her rate of growth and yet I keep marvelling at how much she has grown.  She was speaking of physical growth yet I would prefer to dwell on emotional growth.

Growth by definition is the increasing in physical size, or process of development.  The definitions also use terms like strength, expansion, extension, all created by something else coming into a space and adding to it.   So we grow, evolve, become enlightened, blossom,  all words to describe our enlightenment , meaning  coming from darkness to light, ignorance to a state of knowledge.  I can think of so many analogies for this; a Cocoon emerging in a new state, with new beauty and most importantly awareness, resulting in a butterfly which spreads its wings to take its first flight into the great wonderful world, Growth.

Is this how I feel, like a Cocoon or a butterfly? One thing for sure is that I am experiencing a lot of growth in my life, emotional and spiritual.  I feel more enlightened now than I have ever been, more attune to me and the universe around; I am more alert and aware of the signals and signs that emanate from the universe.  Does it make the day-to-day easier? Not really, more that when I am faced with difficulty and challenge, I can face it and overcome it or at least reconcile with it, because I am learning and growing every day.  Every experience gives me more depth, more growth and expansion and this is all good.

So back to my Angel and her growth, unbeknownst to her, what amazes me the most about her growth is her non-tangible growth, the less obvious signs that are so glaringly apparent to me because I have watched her keenly from day dot. The way she is able to rationalize issues, how she processes information and makes decisions, her capacity for understanding abstract thoughts and concepts.  I find that I can put any idea to her and she will find a way to make it make sense to her and after processing, she can respond and react in a manner that typically blows my mind.  I know for sure at her age, I did not have half the knowledge or awareness that she does, she is very emotionally intelligent as are the rest of her peers, the Millennials or fondly known as Generation Y.  I am in awe of the Millennials and happy that they are so intelligent,  have learned and grown so much, and still have so much more to anticipate,  and the brain being this wondrous thing will continue to grow as they add more into it and ask for more out of it.

I believe that we are all in a constant process of growth; we just need to take stock of today versus yesterday and run willingly into tomorrow reaching like a blossom towards the warming rays of the sun, reach out like butterflies in the wind and fly as is intended by the universe.