The Beauty of the Lotus

I fell in love with the Lotus flower and the concept of the Lotus when a fellow warrior shared her story. The story about how the lotus blooms and grows out of murk and mud. There are many stories about the lotus flower and I know it is symbolic to many people around the world, especially in Buddhist culture.

While certain colors of lotus flowers have special meaning, to me, the beauty comes from the fact that these flowers blossom out of seemingly impossible conditions. While they are gorgeous flowers when they bloom, you cannot see what's beneath the surface. What is visible to us has roots in something dark and dreary.

This blog has served as an outlet for me to share our infertility story. To talk about our particular journey and share what has helped or hurt. To bring light to the topic that is still pretty taboo in our society even though 1 in 8 couples face it.

However, I believe we are at a place where our ongoing journey to add to our family has come to a close. We have a couple of options we have discussed - but none of them involve treatment to try to achieve biological children.

For some time now, it has become a vision of mine to expand and evolve what the Little Lotus Project represents. I want it to represent more than infertility. I want it to include more than just my personal stories and invite guest bloggers to the page.

The hope - and increasingly major dream of mine - is to help encourage and facilitate having open dialogue about the "muddiness" in our lives that is currently or already been overcome. I want us to talk about the difficult situations life brings - both the battles that have been overcome and those that are still being fought before you can "bloom".

While it's TERRIFYING to share our stories, doing so has the potential of not only providing hope, encouragement, resources, and education - but it could also give someone else who reads our stories the much-needed validation they are looking for.

Mental health disorders, death, divorce, illness, chronic illness, loss of a job, and more - these are the things I hope we can share here.

I will be looking for guest bloggers. You don't have to be a professional writer. You just need an open heart and mind and a passion for sharing your journey in hopes of helping others.

If you would like to be a guest blogger, know someone who would want to be a guest blogger, or have a topic you're interested in me covering, please email me.

You can also find us on Facebook and soon you will be able to find us on Instagram.

It is my dream to see this project grow into something beautiful. To see the ultimate lotus. The lotus born from the murk of our collective struggles. The lotus born from our collective strength and perseverance. The lotus born from us coming together to bloom into beauty.

I am so excited to see where this blog goes. And I am even more excited you're along for the journey.

Love,

Kristy