Bloom Where You Are Planted

You can learn a lot from looking down at something other than your phone!

Today was my annual "let's pretend we don't have 2 black thumbs" day. In other words, try to distinguish weeds from plants before both are so big, it's an overwhelming project. I typically wait until the hottest day in July to do this, but I had a free Sunday, so why not start like the normal, two green-thumbed people?

My first task was taking the leaf blower to the white rock garden area and blowing out the dead leaves and other stuff I assume was dead. Then I actually pulled a few weeds so the Tiger Lily plants can grow and bloom without any competition.

The next big project will be re-doing the old rock border at the front of the house. Now that we have the snazzy new driveway, we can't make the rest of the yard look abandoned. So in an oxymoron of projects, we've got grass seed to grow grass (duh) next to the concrete, and I had to take Round-Up to the border area where grass is actually growing – and we don't want it to. So with one black thumb, I have dirt and trying to grow grass. With the other, I am the Black Thumb of Death and killing grass. I have way too much power.

Went to Home Depot with 8,000 other weekend warriors and got the Round-Up and a few other things and had a killer of an afternoon in the 70-degree sunshine.

When I had to take a wheelbarrow of branches, leaves and vines to the pile by the creek, I noticed our backyard was in bloom! I looked down and saw purple everywhere. I like that!

There are times in life I think I have strength and determination. But look at this little violet that pushed its way through an old log to bloom where it was planted.

"Bloom where you are planted." I have seen this old saying posted on my mother's bulletin board of inspirational thoughts, painted on garden plaques and heard it preached in sermons. It reminds me of that other saying I was blogging about just a few weeks ago: "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” Sometimes we just have to make the best of a situation.

Like these violets, covered with dead leaves, maybe mired in negative thoughts. They decided to rise above them. Be positive. And share their beauty.

We all have beauty to share. We do. It might seem like we have to fight through a lot of dead leaves and rotted wood to get there. But we have it. God has blessed each of us with certain abilities so we may invest them in others and bring glory to Him. As we use our God-given talents, we glorify Him and bless others. That is how His garden grows!

We must hold firm in our faith in Him and in ourselves. Look at this fire ant trying to intimidate this flower. The pretty violet is like, "Do you know what I have gone through to get to where I am? You don't scare me."

This flower reminds me that in order to bloom, we must have fire (purple fire) in our veins and faith in our souls. It also says we can never be perfectly pure (white). We wear our scars as proof that we have persevered. And that's beautiful.

The surprise bloom of the day was this bouquet of yellow flowers that rose up out of nowhere in the Bloody Run Creek. I've never seen them there any other spring. Ever.

They are beautiful and tell me to keep believing in miracles about myself and others.

God has planted us where we are that we might be a blessing. He wants you to take deep root. He believes that even someone with two black thumbs can make love, laughter and kindness bloom on our corner of Blue Jay Drive.

Thank goodness He believes in me. Because these pretty red flowers blooming in the front yard tell me I need a lot of work.