A Year of Gratitude – April 19, 2024

A little patch of ground in the garden gave me gratitude today. It also reminded me that hope and memories are often connected to gratitude. They certainly were today.

This might not look like something to be grateful for. For me, it’s a sign that peonies are finding the strength to push through the soil, to break free from their winter’s slumber to stretch towards the sun.

Peonies are among my favorite flowers each year that grow in our garden. They remind me of being a little girl in my grandmother’s garden. She had delicate light pink peonies. I loved to plunge my nose deep inside those big blooms to breathe in their scent.

At that time, I had no idea what a peony was. I only knew that the flower was pretty and that it smelled sweeter than anything I had ever smelled. If I close my eyes, I can feel like I am right back in that moment which must have happened nearly 45 years ago.

I remember being barefoot, the feeling of the prickly grass against my bare feet. I remember that the pale pink peony was on my left as I was walking out in her yard. I remember turning to my left to push my nose deep into the blooms.

I’m not sure why I remember those details, but I do. I carry them with me somehow all these years later. As I type this on my computer, I am staring at a drawing of a pink peony on the wall in front of me. My daughter drew it for me because she knows just how much I love peonies. Somehow, my memory of being a little girl at my grandmother’s house are tied to this moment today and to my daughter.

It’s really amazing how a memory from so long ago can be connected to something that happened today. How lucky I am to have lived this life, to have been able to make those connections and to hold them close.

Seeing these new leaves today gave me hope that it will be peony season again soon. When it is, I will indeed plunge my nose deep into the blooms and breathe in that sweet scent. I’ll think of my grandmother, of the feeling of grass on bare feet, and of how lucky I am to be able to connect my past to my present and future.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.