No Mud, No Lotus

I didn't walk today but I travelled for four hours each way on a coach with a rowdy group of boys who make up my son's soccer team. As you can imagine, I had lots of time to research for our upcoming fundraising event.

My research today was around centrepieces, which I would like to include Lotus flowers. This is not proving an easy feat.

I must admit that I have never given the Lotus flower much thought until I went to Cambodia.

I love flowers, but have never considered the Lotus as one of my favourites. In Cambodia, the Lotus are everywhere. People sell them to make a living, hotels and restaurants display them decoratively. Suddenly, their beauty was captivating, and attracting much more of my attention.

As we went about our work in the slums, we were equally captivated by the smiles and warmth of the Cambodian people, especially the children. Despite the adverse conditions they were living in, their beauty shined through. It was not what I had expected to encounter.

And suddenly it dawned on me; the symbolism of this national flower. The Lotus grows in muddy water, quite at ease in these murky conditions. Its stem is submerged in filth, but still, it manages to grow, thrive and rise above its circumstances.

Much like the lotus flower, the people of Cambodia, despite their smiles and beauty, are products of their circumstances. Underneath what seems to be a happy exterior are layers and layers of complexity, and for some, a vicious cycle of circumstances they can't control.

And so the Cambodians continue to 'smile through adversity'.

Once again, nature teaches us a valuable lesson; "sometimes when you're in a dark place, you think you've been buried, but actually you've been planted"

Written on a bumpy bus ride through northern Victoria among a loud, sweaty group of teenagers. Please excuse any errors...