about late bloomers.
Recently I had a conversation with a friend who passed a landmark birthday a year ago. It just hit her. While we spoke she kept calling herself a “late bloomer.” Listening to my friend talk is when it hit me . . . I really don’t like that euphemism “late bloomer.”
In all of the years that I gardened, even when I needed two truckloads of bark mulch every summer, I never once heard anyone refer to a flower as a “late bloomer.” Flowers bloom when they’re meant to. Some show before the snow melts. Some come in early spring, some in mid-summer. Some are fall visitors. When I moved to a new home, what had been a spring flower became winter color.
Who’s a late bloomer? What are we late for? I’m not catching up to anything. I’m growing at exactly the rate I know how to, and I keep on growing. Everyone I know doing much the same thing. We’re tall, short, and uniquely beautiful. Each of us adds our own splash of changing color.
How boring if we were predictable! Flowers don’t bloom all at once or for each other. They bloom when they’re meant to. Some bloom once. Some are perennial.
We’re not late bloomers . . . but always blooming.
Hi Liz
I like the way you word it: always blooming.
But… all flowers are unique and some will bloom all of a sudden with the brightest colours imaginable, others are more like a continuous fall of small or large ones and some bloom in short bursts in just one colour while again others show all the colours of the rainbow.
Always blooming in our own unique way to make life colourful and warm.
Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
HI Karin,
Always blooming! That’s what I told her. Yeah.
Just like flowers we’re all different in the way we do it, but when we’re not all showy with color . . . we’re on our way there. 🙂
uniquely individual 🙂
Now, doesn’t that sound a lot better than ‘late’ bloomer!
Karin H.
Hi Liz,
I love this post! What a great way to look at life. It reminds me of something Wayne Dyer says frequently – you can’t rush a tomato plant by pulling on it. It simply grows in its own perfect time.
We are all right on time just like the plants and flowers! That’s what makes a beautiful world.
I think so too, Karin. 🙂
Hi Kirsten!
I like thinking we grow as fast as we’re supposed to. I sort of leaves room for paying attention. 🙂
That’s the trouble with comparing yourself to others. You tend to but yourself on their timetable. When you do that, you risk labeling yourself with such unflattering labels as “late bloomer.”
Hi Laura!
Exactly! I wonder who came up with the idea in the first place. I bet it was a teacher trying to get a parent to take a new look at their child’s performance. Good intentions bad choice of words. 🙂
Hi Liz,
Good point. I don’t like this term either. It make the “late bloomer” sound old and inferior.
Not sure if we are constantly growing but I do think that some of us tend to initiate things slowly. I wonder if there are examples of “late initiator” that bloomed:)
Have a great weekend,
Keren
What a great catch and connection.
And as a ‘late bloomer’, thanks for the freedom from a tire-old self-definition I hadn’t caught myself.
It occurs to me that I love the primetime hit series Heroes because the story-line and character developmemt underscores this very thing (plus a few things besides).
Hi Keran!
Old and inferior or young and slower.
Either way it’s not good. I like the part where we bloom in our own time.
Flowering initiator. I like that a lot!
Hi Lissa!
I can’t believe it took me this long either! Bloomers are underwear!!! 🙂
Gee, I wonder how I missed this post. Probably too busy being 50!! Is it because I’m a late visitor? Or always visiting?
Winking sideways.
Hi Late Bloomer, er, Always Bloomer!
Great to see you hear among the flowers!! 🙂