Growing Season

After a long and seemingly endless winter, spring has finally arrived, calling us back to life with its color and warmth.  The time we longed for during the quiet winter months may now have us wondering if we have the energy this season demands.  Springtime feels different when waiting for it to arrive than when living in its rapid change and growth.

Two years ago, I planted a lilac bush that for the last few seasons has not yielded many blooms. I fretted over whether it had been planted in the right place and was getting what it needed to produce the level of boisterous blooms its neighboring hydrangea offered.  Little did I know that what it needed was time to establish its roots and settle into its new environment; to build up sustainable energy to fully grow into itself.  Sure enough, this spring brought the gift of sweet-smelling blooms gracing us with an overabundance that once didn’t seem possible.  Time and tending made it so.

The neighboring hydrangea whose blooms were a thing of envy only a season ago?  That plant now has curled and browning leaves thanks to a late season frost with only one measly bloom in bud.  We may not see any hydrangea flowers this season, then again, we might – if factors change and the plant finds what it needs to bloom.  Time and tending may make it so.

Growth comes after solid roots are in place, fertile soil has been cultivated and dead branches are carefully pruned.  Change takes time and patience, then sometimes seems to come overnight.  So what is growing season asking of you this year?  Is it time for new things to bloom after a time of laying fallow or is this season inviting you into the quiet patience of tending things still being formed?  Whether this is a lilac season calling you into rapid growth or a hydrangea season reminding you that more tending is needed, may you embrace possibility and the life already blooming within you.