Zoe Davidson
Finding the Courage to Flourish
The funny thing about flowers and me is that they have always been there when I needed them. Just blooming. Teaching me how to thrive in the frozen depths of an English winter or through the cracks in the sun scorched California earth. No struggle, no striving, no pushing, no controlling, no pressure to chase perfection. Each flower simply beautiful by just being themselves. Doing what they were meant to do. I am meant to be an equine vet. Yet, the path here has taken it’s toll. Both in body and mind. Some say pressure make diamonds. But I know the pressure of perfection is crippling us girls. Be a an equine vet, be an athlete, be beautiful, then you will have made it. Made it where?
Flowers remind me that all we can do is do our best and just be ourselves. Bloom as we were meant to bloom. Only this way we can bring healing, kindness, compassion and joy to everyone that has the courage to notice them. They are perfect by just having the strength to open their delicate buds and petals and expose their bare faces to the tough and chaotic world. With every reason in the world to wilt, they find the courage to flourish. The innate, raw, wild, untamed beauty of each bloom has the capacity to take my breath away.
Each flower’s brightly coloured face, dancing in the shining sun has the strength to distract me any time my brain threatens to run away with me; no matter what godforsaken, worried, anxious diatribe my mind re-iterates to me as I drive from case to case. Flowers, through the insessant natter of my brain, trained for 10 years to be smart, think of everything, critically evaluate every aspect of every case, of my every move, raised to a ridiculously high bar, can make me stop and be me for a while. One gorgeous colour in a barren hedgerow can calm my mind. Flowers hold the ability to release the ridiculous pressure valve in which we live under. One wrong move, one wrong decision, one wrong diagnosis and an animal could die. It could be all your fault, even though we have dedicated every element of our being to understanding the science to save them.
Do flowers worry about blooming? No, they just follow their journey through their life cycle. By trusting their instincts, guided by the sun, and the seasons they become as gorgeous as they were meant to be. Working in perfect tune with their environment. They are just themselves and they have show me how to just be myself too and find the courage to flourish.
