Daily writing prompt

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

View all responses

Being sort of a newcomer to WordPress, I didn’t realize I could choose from an assortment of writing prompts each day, and so I scrolled through them to find one I could relate to. I thought you get one prompt and that’s it and I was very reluctant to write about emojis this morning. Not that it’s not worth writing about and some of the responses were actually really interesting, it’s just that it’s Saturday morning and I was excited to get up and write this morning without the constraints of time looming over me.

It’s the weekend, I don’t have to work and I wanted to relish this time while the house is quiet, the toddler is still asleep, my coffee and laptop at hand. And so I scrolled to a prompt that I have lots to say about. The quote I live my life by.

Bloom where you’re planted. I’m not sure who first said it or made it famous. I’ve never actually googled that. I just know it perfectly resonates with me and has for years. I live in a small city that’s very much “up north” and could even be considered remote by some standards. And so there are challenges to living over seven hundred kilometres to the nearest urban dwelling.

My city has a Walmart, a couple of grocery stores, other various hardware stores and shops, and actually two “malls”. The malls however, over the last twenty years, have been hit hard by online shopping, Covid and probably ridiculously high lease agreements with the owners of the mall, which has left the retail spaces largely empty. In any case, we are not without the opportunity to purchase essentials but let’s just say there’s not a lot of variety and not many good deals or sales.

As I said, the nearest urban centre which is Winnipeg, is over seven hundred kilometres away. A weekend gives barely enough time to go the “the city” and back to shop, although we northerners do it all the time. Some people even drive there for one night and return the next day.

Probably even worse than options for shopping, are the options for dining out. Our restaurants are few and far between and seem to decline more each decade that passes by.

I sometimes feel the cons outweigh the pros, to living so far north which brings me around to the the quote I live by. At some point, when I was in my late twenties or early thirties I realized that living here was far from perfect, but what of it? You can either complain about where you live and call it down, or…..bloom where you’re planted. And that’s what I chose to do. I chose to make the best of where I live and just go with it. It’s kind of radical acceptance and manifestation all rolled into one.

The jobs are good, have always been plentiful, the income slightly higher than the south for the same work, an abundance of outdoor activities, despite the very long winter, and the raw boreal natural beauty that surrounds the city.

Bloom where you’re planted is a good reminder that no matter where you find yourself, it’s on you to make the best out of whatever that situation is. You have a choice to either complain about it and live in a state of self pity, or do something about it, do whatever it takes to make it a pleasant experience.