A Year of Gratitude – August 11, 2024

I found a bit of gratitude in this beautiful hydrangea today. I have shared this hydrangea with you before. It begins flowering with petals that are creamy white. Those petals gradually take on a bit of a pink blush before turning light pink. Then they take on a deeper pink color until they are a vibrant pink.

This week, they arrived at the midpoint between light pink and the deeper pink color. I have watched this transition happen for years now, more than a decade, but it still amazes me.

It’s one of those processes that both seems to happen overnight and so gradually that you hardly notice. Each stage is beautiful, unique, and a part of the play that this hydrangea tree puts on for us every summer.

There’s something comforting about the evolution of these petals over the course of the summer. Much like watching autumn leaves take on color, lose their color, and fall to the ground, I know the rhythm to expect. I know what it will look like, yet I’m never sure how long each stage will last.

Much like life, it has different seasons to itself. The seasons are not necessarily similar in length and I don’t know how long each will last. I must stop and enjoy each one in its own time, take notice of the beauty that exists in each one, and welcome the next step as it arrives.

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.