Hope Will Keep Us Growing Strong

Every once in a while, I notice that a specific flower or plant doesn’t seem to thrive in the place that I have planted it. I try to find the reason and, if possible, fix the problem.

I like happy plants.

For several years I tried to get tulips to grow in a planter beside my front porch. Yet, no matter what I tried, the tulips would fail to thrive. 

One year, I pulled up all the tulips and replaced them with some of my favorite iris. But apparently, I had left one behind.

This single tulip, in the midst of a patch of iris, had grown tall and beautiful! I wondered if the iris gave off some nutrients in the soil that the tulip needed. Perhaps the growing leaves of the iris have protected that lone tulip from the heavy, wet snows we had. Whatever the reason, I loved discovering that it was there and even more so, that it was every bit what a tulip should be.

Yesterday was my mother’s funeral. It was also her 87th birthday.

There was surely a party in Heaven celebrating her life.

Now that she has had her wish granted to go Home, I know that she is happy living an existence that is pain free and without a body that no longer worked. She can finally move about and be actively helping her family which she has been unable to do for many years.

This alone makes her incredibly happy! 

I know this to be true and I of course, want her happy… so I was a bit surprised to feel the gaping hole of her loss in my life.

The experiences of mortality sometimes make us feel unearthed and exposed. We are rooted out of our comfort zone and suddenly find ourselves surrounded by feelings and experiences that we never expected.

But we dig in, find some piece of solid ground, put our face to the sun, and decide to keep growing. Later, when the storm has passed and in a moment of calm reflection, we discover ourselves to be better than we have ever been.

I will hold firmly to that hope.