The flower that follows the sun does so even on cloudy days.    —Robert Leighton

Plant Mom

About ten years ago, I bought a plant and immediately almost killed it. I’m not much of a green thumb, and I didn’t think about what would happen if I bought a plant and then left it in the car while I ran errands for an hour. What happened is that it got fried into near oblivion. I was horrified and wracked with guilt, so I vowed to nurse it back to health. I cut back the dead, withered leaves. I watered it. I placed it near the sun. It grew.

The Plant Perseveres

After a year, it looked better. After about five years, it looked nearly as lovely as it had when I bought it. I gave it food and a bigger pot. And then, two years later, the strangest thing happened—it started producing something that looked like...flowers. Not beautiful flowers, mind you, just canoe-shaped green flowers with white stamens.

What Are We Capable Of?

We will bloom because we know we can.

I had no idea that this plant was even capable of that. But the plant knew. Day by day, year by year, it kept growing. Just as we keep showing up, working with ideas and thoughts and images, putting down word after word until finally, we put forth our creation, the total of each day’s effort. The setbacks don’t stop us. We will bloom because we know we can.