New Growth
“Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.”
Rumi
Every one with natural hair knows the beauty of these two words: new growth. It is when you realize that your hair is retaining length and your follicles give you something new and healthy streaming out of your scalp. Sometimes we are not aware of new growth because we are too focused on theold split ends, damaged ends, the hair we lost that one time we got too scissor happy; focusing on everything but the positive.
We dissect, analyze and consume the negative aspects religiously, when focusing on the positive would bring so much more peace. Who hasn’t been there in life? Some of us visit that place every once in a while (I am some of us, I’m saying this in all transparency, hoping that you won’t judge me because casting the first stone, right?)
But in all realness I have been doing exactly that with my life. Looking at all the things that were not going the way I had planned them to (because control freak) and not seeing what was developing underneath the surface. All the work was being put in to the seed that I had sown I was watering it, giving it warmth, nourishing it but there was nothing to show for it or better yet not the kind of something I wanted myself and others (because finding your worth in the validation of others just pops up on the menu even when we don't want it to) to see. For real I can’t be the only one going through this.
It helps to take a step back and view it from a neutral perspective. Do a side by side comparison of ourselves. Because any other comparison would be detrimental to our success. Look at the before and after and there will be details, small ones that you will have missed while evaluating your life. The length you thought you weren’t retaining with your hair? Is now seen in the volume of your fro. The deadlines you were never able to meet? You’ve met 5 out of 10: that’s progress and don’t dare telling yourself otherwise. The inability to communicate which you were struggling with and that was destroying your relationships? Your standard answer isn’t “it’s nothing” anymore.
The work we put in ourselves will eventually come to fruition, it all happens underneath the surface: in the mud and the dirt before it sprouts and blooms outwardly.
Today, let us look at our new growth whether it be our hair, our lifestyle, our character, our friendships and marvel at the beauty of it all.
Love,
Maame