Most of my readers know when I am in a slump. Whether it is a garden slump or a life slump, people can tell. I can’t really fool anyone. Let’s face it, the world, at present, is completely overwhelming. Whether it is COVID, financial crisis, school issues for children, politics, natural disasters or humanitarian crisis’…the world is heavy on hearts.
Yesterday, I received a lovely email from a new garden friend, Carrie, who simply wanted to see how I was doing. We have chatted a few times about heirloom bulbs, and how much she loved Oxblood Lilies and Spider Lilies. Old gardens remind her of her Grandmother’s gardens. I had planned on sending her a little package of bulbs, but with all the dumb doctor visits about my new voiceless condition, I let time slip. Why do we let time slip on some of the most enjoyable parts of life? I can’t think of anything more enjoyable than gifting Oxblood Lilies to a deserving garden friend, but yet….time slips by. I blinked and I hadn’t been writing, digging or dreaming. I was slumping around with the weight of the world on my shoulders.
Sound familiar?
Our world just can’t catch a break. COVID, lock downs, politics, suffering….It’s all too much for our hearts. But, within all this chaos, we still have our own little corner of the earth to make beautiful. Whether it be a little grouping of Spider Plants on the windowsill, or a lovely farm with old trees and horses. We all have a place to create beauty.
Beauty is important. Flowers and gardens fill the air with hope. Beauty catches our eye and for a split second, our spirits are lifted. Beauty allows us to see beyond the present circumstances, and dream beyond. The Lord didn’t create chaos….mankind did that on his own. The Lord created every good and lovely thing under heaven, and I think that is where our hearts need to rest. The more I write about heirloom flowers, the more I realize the countless ways the Lord is *still* at work. Though He didn’t create chaos, none of this is a surprise to Him. He is the Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and the End. The Lord is still at work.. We just need to rest in His Presence, breathe in His Grace. We need to tend to our own little gardens and our own little “flock”, sharing beauty with a desperate world that needs reassurance.
Maybe, just maybe that’s why the Lord placed humanity first and foremost in a garden…..to quietly dwell in the beauty of the Lord’s creation, walking beside the Lord in the cool midst of the morning.
It is nice to have reminders to get back to the garden….Forget the world’s woes for a moment and be at peace. Dig in the earth, feel the breeze, listen to the birds and simply just “be”. Allow the Lord to pour His Word back into our squelched hearts.
In Southern gardens,, the Oxblood Lily is symbolic for rejuvenation and hope. These Lilies endure the unending Texas heat, generation after generation, producing a deep red flower that blooms with the first rain of Fall. These flowers are reminders that in spite of our present circumstances, beauty still is waiting on the other side of drought….and that, my friends, is reason to rejoice.
If you’d like your very own Oxblood Lily, please email heirloombulbgirl@gmail.com I will gladly send you a few *free* Oxblood Lilies, all you have to pay is $5 for shipping. No strings attached.
I have a few sips of my coffee left, and then I’m off to the gardens at the studio. I will be gathering up the box of Lilies for Carrie, and slapping on some shipping tape and visiting the post office. Carrie ended her email by saying “I hope you know how many lives you’ve touched through your gardening”. Actually, dear garden friend, it is not my gardening that touches hearts, it is simply the beauty of the garden itself. Let’s face it…the beauty of an old lily just has a way of melting hearts. 🙂
Each garden speaks to the soul, so get those hands in the dirt and spead the beauty of the Lord in all you do. Happy