Lost in Exploration
Not gonna lie, in the couple years of being in my 30s, it has been a journey of self-discovery.. or “re”self-discovery rather. What I used to find interest in, tolerate and what I used to value, just didn’t seem to fit anymore with the version I am now. I realize I have been drifting away from familiarity and comfort and was beginning to feel, with no other way to describe it, “lost”.
After creating custom hats at Mega Deluxe across the street, we unexpectedly stumbled across this gem of a place called Brother and Sisters Flower Shop in Oakland, it didn’t look like much from the outside, but when you enter it was totally my vibe.. I didn’t think pics of it would end up here haha
It’s strange because the shift and feeling of a new day with the same routine we’ve been living, just makes us feel uneasy all of a sudden. The monotony of feeling stagnant or in a rut constantly nudges us to re-evaluate life, purpose, and if we’re on the right path.
The possibility is that maybe we’ve reached a new season of our life and no matter how much we try to hold on to what we knew was “me”, we have no other choice but to accept that it is time to venture in to a new journey. We try to find ways to remember how to ground ourselves back to what used to work, but it still seems to be re-playing a recurring cycle in need of a shift.
It looks like a hidden garden inside filled with a lot of greenery and dried florals.
For example, the ways I used to approach challenges, by distractions and the perspective of putting on a strong face for the world didn’t work this time around because no matter how hard we try, we cannot escape our internal truths and would have to face it eventually. Even the ways I would try to force doors to open for me without yet taking the steps to earning the key to them left me feeling behind, or off track, I constantly continued to feel like I was chasing the life I “dream” about every single day living in the future, constantly planning ahead… when in fact I never took the time to “smell the roses” (funny for being a flower lover myself) to acknowledge the current blessings that I have now that once was just a dream in the past.
It is a spacious shop where it trails to to different sections of interests including a greenhouse full of pre-made dried bouquets and pottery.
The act of dissecting how I feel about a situation to learn the efforts it takes just to “let go” and trust the universe, allowed me to soak in every emotion, situation, and challenge I needed to face. Learning to spend time discovering this new version of myself seemed to bring me the most contentment in this current season of life, and I’m enjoying making the time to invest in to the new me with mindfulness and gratitude.
I loved how they incorporated a lot of unexpected furniture that just seemed to work together to bring the shop so much whimsical character.
Interestingly enough, we are only lost when we are actively in search for a new destination, we are exploring a new map of life and are experiencing that growth in shift. Nowadays information is easily at our finger tips with the help of online sources, and when we need an answer or direction when we’re lost, its nothing Siri or Google can’t find. Though, when it comes to life…we need to come about it in the ways discovery used to be from the beginning, where we need to sometimes get lost, set up camp to get familiar with the area, take it all in to just be comfortable accepting the situation and learning how to navigate through it before we can continue on to our new path.
The new season is here and though the transition can be rough, discovering our journey of exploration will bring the biggest reward, and there’s no need to rush it, maybe it is the season of learning patience. Take time to just “be here” to soak in all our current blessings paying gratitude to how far we’ve grown.
Not every explorer finds their destination right away, sometimes its that unexpected detour that can bring life changing experiences for us while being “lost”. Never stop exploring, because before you know it, our desires will present itself towards us in divine timing building our greatest adventure story worth sharing along the way.