A Year of Gratitude – June 29, 2024

I found my gratitude in witnessing a plant come back into good health today. Last fall, we picked up this Sonic Bloom Weigela on the clearance cart at a local store. It looked rough. It had broken branches and was severely lopsided.

We brought it home and planted it in a spot that we knew would give it a bit of protection over the winter. It spent its first season here on our farm living in the partial shade of the immense oak tree that stands near the corner of the farmhouse closest to the front door.

We crossed our fingers and hoped that it would survive the winter. This spring, it had scant signs of life, but didn’t look ready to greet the seasons ahead.

We waited for the first buds to appear and then did a bit of light pruning. We removed the branches that didn’t seem to have any life in them to lighten the load on the plant. We hoped that would allow the viable branches to set plenty of buds, to create leaves and flowers.

Slowly, it began to unfurl a few bright green leaves. We came back in with pruning shears and took a few more lifeless branches away. Every few days, we checked on this bush, looking for branches that needed to be removed in order to allow the remaining branches to thrive and surge back to life.

We were so happy when the branches that had tiny buds had little green leaves. Those branches continued to grow and green up. Then they set tiny pink buds that could become flowers.

That lifeless twig of a bush we planted last fall has become vibrant and loaded with colorful blooms. It stands tall in the space we chose for it, supple branches swaying in the afternoon breeze.

On this day, a clearance shelf perennial reminded me of something I already knew to be true. Sometimes, we have to cut away the branches that are never going to come back to life, the pieces that are holding us back and preventing us from thriving. We have to give ourselves the time to bloom, to see which parts should be let go and which should be held onto and tightly protected.

Often while we are navigating that difficult path, we also have to show ourselves the love we deserve even if the universe isn’t sending it our way. We have to love ourselves and accept both the version of us that did exist and the version that we are going to find the bravery to try to be.

It can be so difficult to let go, to admit that something just can’t be what it used to be. Even when we are presented with irrefutable evidence, it is difficult to come to terms with that reality. It’s human nature to want to hold on to what we have, what we have done, where we have been. But sometimes letting go is the only way forward, we simply can’t carry the past with us into the future. It just doesn’t fit anymore.

So here’s to new growth, to giving ourselves permission to let go of something in order to spring back to good health, to find that vibrant self that has been dormant. I hope that you’ll give yourself the time to find your version of that. I hope that I will too.

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.