But here’s the thing about that which immediately struck me:
The lotus blooms because that mud has everything it needs to produce beautiful flowers. That mud contains the life-giving nutrients required to give that blossom the best shot at a beautiful life. Mud might look messy, but it harbours all the plants needs to succeed.
Adversity isn’t that. It isn’t a messy-but-nutrient-rich environment. It is marked by the absence of things. The absence of the basics required for life. The absence of the security required to create. There is no energy for blossoms if it all the plant can do is cling precariously to life. Blossoms require a lot of energy to create. If a plant is under environmental stress, it will forgo blooming, or the flowers will be sub-par, until a season hits with more favourable conditions. A lotus cannot bloom if its seed is planted in the cracks of a concrete road.
A person’s potential is lost when that person must devote all of their time, their energy, and their mental capacity to simply surviving. There is nothing left over. There will be no flowers.
I cannot be the lotus. Not currently.
I cannot even aspire to be the lotus.
But one day, one day, I will bloom with all the fuck you energy of a dandelion.