I have been reflecting recently on the notion of “thriving.” So I looked it up in a few dictionaries: to thrive is to “grow or develop well or vigorously; to flourish.” I like to imagine thriving as a flower that blooms – a bud with all that juicy life potential that slowly unfolds every corner of itself until each petal is completely unfurled, the entire flower opened. It is energy in movement, flowing. Thriving is not just surviving, getting by, or managing. There is no complacence or compromise in thriving; it is all-out gusto! I have never seen any flower pause mid-bloom, frozen in action; once the process begins, it continues to the grand finale. (Of course, the real grand finale is death and even in this there can be thriving.)
A few years ago I was contacted by the volunteer coordinator at hospice; she had a patient she thought I might want to serve. As the coordinator read the description of the elderly woman’s prognosis, she used the term “failure to thrive.” In my naiveté, I thought that only applied to sick infants. When I asked for clarification, the hospice employee told me that the patient “just wasn’t doing well” but she couldn’t seem to pinpoint anything specific. More recently, I have come to understand what “failure to thrive” means; “malaise, poor self-care, and weight loss” are more specific medical descriptors for this geriatric condition. And this all makes good sense to me now. We can still get by with a little less weight; we can be out of sorts or have “a feeling of general discomfort or uneasiness,” (malaise); we can neglect exercise, good diet, mind-stimulating activities, or things that make our hearts sing. When these converge, though, into a barren landscape of existence, it can be devastating.
I want to thrive. I want my lifeblood to surge with each new day. I want to see my family and friends, my loved ones, those acquaintances with whom I chat, to bubble with the vibrancy, light and color of being alive. It is our greatest gift, this one small life we have.
May all beings thrive.
All blog photographs taken by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted.
