A Year of Gratitude – September 18, 2024

I found my gratitude in an unexpected place today. I discovered it in an ending.

Endings don’t usually give us a reason for gratitude. More often, they give us a reason for reflection. They are usually accompanied by sadness.

Yet somehow, I came upon this nearly spent bloom in the garden today and was taken by how beautiful its ending is. Endings can be beautiful if we see them not really as an end, but as a change into something else.

This flower has been bright and beautiful for weeks now. I saw it every day when I walked through the garden. It had glorious red petals. They have fallen away, one by one, until five lonely petals remain. You can see from the petal on the bottom that it won’t be there for long.

Sure, it is a bit sad to see what was once a bright and beautiful flower fade away. For some reason, I looked at this fading beauty and saw the glorious seed head still balancing on the leggy green stem. It holds hundreds of zinnia seeds that I can save for planting in next year’s garden.

This one flower gave me something to enjoy all summer long and will give me the ability to plant new flowers to enjoy next year. What a tremendous gift to be given.

What is the end for this singular bloom is just the beginning for the zinnias I plan to grow from it next summer. In that way, this end isn’t an ending at all.

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.