I was going for some beautiful lilies. They were already open and their colors were intense–red and yellow and orange. A woman stopped me.

“Those are already spent,” she said. “Go for these unopened ones.”

She was right, of course. I said thanks and followed her suggestion.

I was disappointed, though. I wanted those colorful beauties and not the green buds. What if their colors were dull? What if they failed to bloom?

It was something about believing in possibility.

It was something about knowing that I would hear what these flowers had to say to me.

It was something about trust.

The buds the woman directed me to did eventually bloom and when they did, they were spectacular. They lasted a long time in my vase, longer than the ones I had initially gone for would have. She was right.

I’ve spent most of my life as that closed up bud. I’ve been waiting for someone to see me not for how I appear now, but for the promise  that I–my words–hold.

I’m telling this to myself and to you.

Your waiting, your anticipation, at some point these will fall away. Believe that someone will choose the bud instead of the flower. Believe that someone will understand that you represent possibility and not what has already bloomed.

Bloom. And when you are done blooming, regenerate your potential and become another bud.

No one is waiting for you. So don’t you wait. Don’t hold back.

Do not waste time. Bloom. Bloom now.