Seasonal Bulbs and Their Lessons
Seasonal bulbs again teach life lessons worth repeating. Years ago, in November, I bought an amaryllis bulb that I assumed would bloom for Christmas. (Not reading directions enables such assumptions) I should have started at Halloween for Christmas color!
This year, I bought with an informed understanding that starting a bulb in early December would mean no color for six to eight weeks. (I am still waiting.)
A friend, however, gave me a bulb in early January hoping I’d have a bright red bloom for Valentine’s Day. It exploded two weeks early with three vivid red, lush blooms!
Life lessons: Indoor gardening can be as full of surprises as gardening in the great outdoors. Nature isn’t obliged to follow my timetable, in or out of doors. So, I can’t force anyone’s blooming, including my own.
Recovering from the most recent virus has been a slow slough. But hey, recovering is the operative word! So, I feel like the amaryllis looks on the left: health is budding, but not ready to bloom.
These past several weeks have been a continuing education class on attitude adjustments. Impatient, cross, and puny, I rise above my wretched self-pity though when I read articles on why so many elderly are dying for this year’s flu.
Scaring myself into civility seems to work. For a while.
Since I can’t think of anything to write worth reading, I’ll close with a quote that sums up today’s wisdom:
Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy. ~Izaak Walton (1593-1683) The Compleat Angler [1653-1655], Chapter 21
Now I think I’ll paint . . . adapting my tulips from another artist’s impressions. Sometimes my hands work better than my words.
When words hide, PAINT
You shouldn’t say it is not good. You should say you do not like it; and then, you know, you’re perfectly safe. ~James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) In “Whistler Stories,” by D. C. Seitz, 1913.
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Barbara, I’m so sorry you’ve had this ongoing health roller coaster. It IS unnerving to be in the Senior Saint category and know that our bodies are not as on guard as they used to be. Certainly brings out the not-so-best in us, always a reality check on my heart. Praying Doug will not be visited by the sickness.
Though I rarely write, I do enjoy your little blurbs, and this one especially because of the lovely painting.
Have a little extra time today from normal demands and grandchildren visiting. Will be spending the day in the loo in preparation for a routine colonoscopy, the last one, Lord willing. Nice that I can be entertained in there with my mac and iPhone. lol. I didn’t have that benefit 8 yrs. ago when I had the last one. So I’ll put my chin up and thank God I’m not imbibing chemo pills or such, and that the Lord has not allowed the flu to enter our quarters thus far this season.
Blessings ~