Do You Have What it Takes to Push Up Through the Earth and Bloom Again?

Do I have the strength to bloom and push through the Earth? Ugh, that sounds so hippie and so not where I am at or something I am open to right now. So, I don't know.
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It is no secret these days many of us feel as though the wheels are falling off around us. And by definition, they are.

We are facing some deep life challenges; loss of income, homes, savings and our overall basic sense of security. These economic chronicles have become like a broken record, the same story repeated over and over while we're all forced to listen, collectively as a nation.

Friends and family are suffering right on front of my very eyes; my oldest friend is a single father of two and has packed up and moved his kids twice within the past sixty days to figure out where makes the most cost effective sense, while he waits to see if he is going to lose a major real estate property he built from ground up. Another friend's father is dying of cancer and his mom is spiraling deep into her alcoholism to cope, while another is wondering how to deal with their mother's job loss, possible condo foreclosure, her depression and prescription drug addiction. More than one person I know is in the middle of contemplating bankruptcy, seven friends have been laid off and counting. It's an emotional epidemic roller coaster.

For others, after all the bills and refinancing roulette, pulling your kids out of pre school and cutting corners and coupons, it seems we haven't only lost our income, but we've lost our spiritual sense of self. And more so, I think we've lost the will and energy to even muster up a weak version of "Hey, chin up. It's going to be okay." We're no longer feelin' it.

Depression is upon us, silently seeping into our spirits, dissention among couples, fighting mostly about finances. We're all edgy irritable, stressed and not very much fun anymore, are we? We're pretty much spiritually exhausted.

I'm an entrepreneur, which means by nature I am a survivor, and this can be said in my personal life as well. I have lost more than most and along the way, and it is within crisis I have actually gained a true sense of who I am and how I show up and try my best to kick some major ass in this world.

I run a boutique PR firm and a creative international art collective that helps youth in underdeveloped countries. I am an aunt, a sister, a BFF, a girlfriend, a daughter, an author, artist and an expert in my field. I have a lot of responsibility to my friends and family, my own creativity as well as my clients to show up and be sparkly.

Sparkly? Good luck people, I'm lucky if I put a clean bra on these days. And the will to be creative? That concept lives as far as Iceland right now.

In the past, when numbers were down, I would see it as an interesting challenge, pull up my straps, have a good cup of strong delicious Peets coffee and work my magic. I always came out with new business fluttering our way. Most times brought in a little too much business. Oh, and I forgot to be grateful during those times, by the way.

Now, with business dropping like flies all over the place, and such clear fear running rampant among fellow business owners, I feel utterly spent from just listening to it all.

I sit wondering if I have another "run " in me. Another run requires me to feel it, reach out, connect, network with my people, friends, clients and former clients -- create new plans, brilliant, exciting ideas and create an infectious energy irresistible to all.

Truthfully, I'm tired, and it's the kind of tired where I want to take all my toys from the sandbox and just not play anymore and pack it all up, buy a ticket to someplace else and simplify like no one ever has. I want to take an adult time out and let someone else figure out some rock solid solution.

My friend Laura mentioned spring being a time of death and rebirth, a time of passing. It's a time where you have to decide if you have the will to bloom again, to become a flower.

Flowering from an itty-bitty seed it not easy, it's a commitment. It's slow and takes work and watering and time. So much work.

I asked myself if I have the strength to bloom and push through the Earth? Ugh, that sounds so hippie and so not where I am at or something I am open to right now. I just don't want to play. My final answer? "I don't know. "

And then I realize, if not me, or us, then who? This is all happening, it's happening to us collectively as well as individually and there is something to be said about that. This is a lesson for us all. We're supposed to pull our heads out of our spoiled pretty homes full of nice things and regroup, get a new and less greedy grip.

If we step outside our situation and look in, really, we have two basic choices. We have a choice to show up depressed and defeated within this very challenging time, whining all along the way; or we have the choice to reach deep inside and be inspired and look at this as an opportunity to face our fears. We have a choice to see this as the perfect and appropriate moment to look at all of this as a gift and an opportunity to plant new dream seeds and care for these new ones with less greed and greater care towards a more grateful and authentic way of living and being.

We've needed this for a long time -- we just haven't realized it. Clean the decks, and clean house if you will. Choose to show up differently.

So yes, I am going to find the strength to push up through the Earth to bloom again, I just need to figure out what kind of flower I want to be. I'm thinking orchid or gardenia.

What flower will you bloom into? Let's get this garden on.

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