Blood in the Leaves

All colours have something unique and beautiful about them. They have significance, symbolism, and purpose. They’re how we communicate emotions, experiences, and truths.

When we think of life and growth we often think of beautiful lush green forests or rolling hills covered in grass. It’s easy to see these visible signs of growth because we can literally see it with our own eyes - we can observe the unfurling of new leaves or the sprouting of new grass after a spring melt.

We are often told that our growth means output and output is how we measure our growth - we need to do more, give more, and love more so that we can make the world a better place for everyone. These are all good things when used in a healthy balance, but they are still only a single type of growth. It’s all focused on the outward actions of a person; the things that are easily visible.

The green of vegetation may be the easiest sign of growth, but it’s the lifeblood within those leaves and within our own veins that is the true life within us all. It’s the hidden things that we can’t easily see that really enable us to grow - not just physically but also spiritually. If we can realize this and set aside our compulsion to do more and instead focus on being more, then we will grow in a whole new way and that internal growth can feed the outward expression of ourselves.

Valuing what cannot be seen is hard, though, so it’s easy to end up gravitating toward trying to grow new green leaves. But the external cannot exist without the internal, and the internal means nothing without the external. Neither can exist alone. You can’t thrive with just one or the other. What you need is blood in your leaves.