Jim and I have just returned from an incredible trip to the Netherlands. We also spent a bit of time in Belgium and France, but most of our days were enjoyed soaking in the sounds, sights and smells of the gorgeous Netherlandic country.
This trip was in honour of our 45th wedding anniversary. We had hummed and hawed about where we would go, but the lure of the possibility of seeing fields filled with tulips was more than we could resist. I’ve seen pictures of them for years and wondered if they were real. It was hard to imagine those long rows of colour being something we could see in real life. But real they were.
Tulip season is a short one. These beautiful symbols of spring only each last about two weeks. If the different types are spaced out in terms of when they are planted, the entire season can stretch to about 5 weeks. We knew we were taking a chance on seeing them. Luckily, we had many other sights on our list to see, so if we had missed the flowers, our trip would still have been incredible. Thankfully, luck was on our side.
We landed in Amsterdam at about eight o’clock in the morning after an overnight flight. We’d planned to spend the day exploring the nearby town of Haarlem and had booked a little canal tour for mid afternoon when we knew we’d be running out steam. We had saved our big tulip day for the following day when we hoped to be rested and fully able to enjoy both the bike tour we’d booked and our visit to Keukenhof, the most beautiful spring garden in the world. But I didn’t know if I could wait, so on our way to Haarlem, I asked Jim if he thought we could take a drive through the countryside to see if we could just get a sneak peak of the fields of tulips. Some like the ones in the pictures. We did a very brief search online and discovered that the region of Lisse was famous for tulips and we headed off in that general direction. We were not disappointed. We’d only driven for about twenty minutes when some brilliant colours caught our eye. With a few twists and turns onto country roads we found ourselves alongside fields of the most brilliant colours of tulips. Red, orange, yellow, pink and purple stripes filled field after field.
The beauty of it stopped us in our tracks. Such a simple little flower. Such an incredible sight.
The entire next day we were engulfed in tulips. We toured the countryside by bike in the morning where we were treated to more incredible stripes of beauty. Afterward we walked and walked and walked through the world famous Keukenhof Gardens where over 7 million bulbs had been planted and were in their full glory. It’s very hard to put into words just how gently beautiful this was.
Tulips don’t have to do much on their own to blossom. At Keukenhof gardens, a team of forty gardeners use the knowledge gained over hundreds of years to plant the bulbs at just the right time in the fall. They plant them in perfect sandy soil, in wide open spaces where the sun can warm them and begin the process of growth. With a little help from Mother Nature, the following spring, they bloom.
What would have happened, I wondered, if the tulip bulbs had the ability to think and feel like we do. Might they have said, ‘I don’t think I should fully bloom. Someone might not approve.’ Or perhaps they would have thought, ‘I was taught to not show off. I’ll just stay quietly in the ground.’ Or maybe, ‘I’m not quite ready to bloom yet, so I’ll work hard and maybe I’ll bloom next year.’ Or they might have remembered being told, ‘Who do you think you are? You’re not better than any of the other flowers. Stay small.’ Or even, ‘Be satisfied in your little winter cocoon. You don’t need anything more than what you’ve always had.’
Imagine.
Imagine the beauty we would have missed. Imagine the joy not brought to the thousands of people who came to witness them. Imagine how different our world would be if tulips talked to themselves like we do.
This trip was in honour of our 45th wedding anniversary. We had hummed and hawed about where we would go, but the lure of the possibility of seeing fields filled with tulips was more than we could resist. I’ve seen pictures of them for years and wondered if they were real. It was hard to imagine those long rows of colour being something we could see in real life. But real they were.
Tulip season is a short one. These beautiful symbols of spring only each last about two weeks. If the different types are spaced out in terms of when they are planted, the entire season can stretch to about 5 weeks. We knew we were taking a chance on seeing them. Luckily, we had many other sights on our list to see, so if we had missed the flowers, our trip would still have been incredible. Thankfully, luck was on our side.
We landed in Amsterdam at about eight o’clock in the morning after an overnight flight. We’d planned to spend the day exploring the nearby town of Haarlem and had booked a little canal tour for mid afternoon when we knew we’d be running out steam. We had saved our big tulip day for the following day when we hoped to be rested and fully able to enjoy both the bike tour we’d booked and our visit to Keukenhof, the most beautiful spring garden in the world. But I didn’t know if I could wait, so on our way to Haarlem, I asked Jim if he thought we could take a drive through the countryside to see if we could just get a sneak peak of the fields of tulips. Some like the ones in the pictures. We did a very brief search online and discovered that the region of Lisse was famous for tulips and we headed off in that general direction. We were not disappointed. We’d only driven for about twenty minutes when some brilliant colours caught our eye. With a few twists and turns onto country roads we found ourselves alongside fields of the most brilliant colours of tulips. Red, orange, yellow, pink and purple stripes filled field after field.
The beauty of it stopped us in our tracks. Such a simple little flower. Such an incredible sight.
The entire next day we were engulfed in tulips. We toured the countryside by bike in the morning where we were treated to more incredible stripes of beauty. Afterward we walked and walked and walked through the world famous Keukenhof Gardens where over 7 million bulbs had been planted and were in their full glory. It’s very hard to put into words just how gently beautiful this was.
Tulips don’t have to do much on their own to blossom. At Keukenhof gardens, a team of forty gardeners use the knowledge gained over hundreds of years to plant the bulbs at just the right time in the fall. They plant them in perfect sandy soil, in wide open spaces where the sun can warm them and begin the process of growth. With a little help from Mother Nature, the following spring, they bloom.
What would have happened, I wondered, if the tulip bulbs had the ability to think and feel like we do. Might they have said, ‘I don’t think I should fully bloom. Someone might not approve.’ Or perhaps they would have thought, ‘I was taught to not show off. I’ll just stay quietly in the ground.’ Or maybe, ‘I’m not quite ready to bloom yet, so I’ll work hard and maybe I’ll bloom next year.’ Or they might have remembered being told, ‘Who do you think you are? You’re not better than any of the other flowers. Stay small.’ Or even, ‘Be satisfied in your little winter cocoon. You don’t need anything more than what you’ve always had.’
Imagine.
Imagine the beauty we would have missed. Imagine the joy not brought to the thousands of people who came to witness them. Imagine how different our world would be if tulips talked to themselves like we do.
We humans are lucky. We don’t only have one short blooming season each year. We have so many opportunities to bloom. We can bloom in small and big ways. We can bloom all on our own or alongside others. We bloom when we are brave enough to show up exactly as ourselves. We bloom when we stop playing small, and step into our greatness, whatever that means for us. We bloom when we are kind, when we smile, when we rock an outfit, when we put our creations on view for others to see, when we share our talents, when we deep-down laugh, when we sit quietly with a friend. We bloom when we push aside the voices in our head that tell us we are not enough.
This weekend is Mother’s Day. Typically, it’s the time of year when the first flowers and tree blossoms appear. I challenge you too, to fully appear. To bloom. Just like those magnificent tulips who I can almost hear whispering to one another, ‘Bloom, baby, bloom’.
My inquiry for you this week is, ‘How am I blooming?’
Elizabeth is a certified professional Leadership Coach, and the owner of Critchley Coaching. She is the founder and president of the Canadian charity, RDL Building Hope Society. She works with corporations, non-profits and the public sector, providing leadership coaching. She creates and facilitates custom workshops for all sizes of groups and has expertise in facilitating Strategic Plans for organizations. Contact Elizabeth to learn how to bloom.
This weekend is Mother’s Day. Typically, it’s the time of year when the first flowers and tree blossoms appear. I challenge you too, to fully appear. To bloom. Just like those magnificent tulips who I can almost hear whispering to one another, ‘Bloom, baby, bloom’.
My inquiry for you this week is, ‘How am I blooming?’
Elizabeth is a certified professional Leadership Coach, and the owner of Critchley Coaching. She is the founder and president of the Canadian charity, RDL Building Hope Society. She works with corporations, non-profits and the public sector, providing leadership coaching. She creates and facilitates custom workshops for all sizes of groups and has expertise in facilitating Strategic Plans for organizations. Contact Elizabeth to learn how to bloom.
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