Blooming in Harsh Conditions

The other day, I found this plant at Fred Meyer all wilted and dying. I brought the little fella up to the cashier and he sold it to me for $.99 since it clearly was on its way out. I took it home, drenched the soil and by morning it was beautiful.

I've purchased some beautiful plants in the past that were raised in perfect conditions but when I take them home they die almost instantly. They can't handle stress or neglect or tough love.

Some of my best plants were rescues. The orchid in my bathroom, I found 4 years ago inside of a plastic cup on the floor of a grocery store aisle. I rescued that plant and it's the only orchid I've ever kept alive and it blooms for me every year.

With most of my closest friends, we have come to each other in the same way, broken and struggling but beautiful and with so much potential for growth with just a little bit of love and encouragement.

It's funny that I see us, the ones who've walked through Hell and come out the other side, thriving in these challenging circumstances because we are scrappy and tenacious and we don't give up.

Most flowering plants die shortly after they bloom and go to seed. Us late bloomers though, we have hardy stalks that can handle long winters and hot summer drought. We know how to hang on because that's what we've always done. And right now, when all the other delicate flowers are wilting in less than idillic situations, giving up on hope for the future and dying of despair, my scrappy friends and I are blooming. And when our blossoms wither, we bloom again. Because we're here to stay. We've seen the cycles and know that winter is not the end of the world.

And while the violets are lovely in their own right, a thorny rose can live over a hundred years through all kinds of seasons and her blossoms smell as sweet as her first bud.