A Year of Gratitude – November 11, 2024

I found myself full of gratitude at a reminder from nature today. My mom and I were outside. She walked me over to her garden to show me something.

She pointed down and drew my attention to a tiny blueberry bush she had nestled in for the winter with pine needle mulch only to find that it had set blooms. Our warm fall weather had this little blueberry confused about the season ahead.

Winter is coming, but this plant is convinced that the growing season is upon us. It isn’t and these beginnings of a few delicious berries won’t be able to produce fruit before winter weather remembers our address.

There was something sad, and at the same time, hopeful about seeing these papery shells of where a berry could be. I was sad at the knowledge that these berries would learn soon enough that there was not a growing season to follow. Well, at least not until we have passed through winter and spring to arrive at that point on the calendar.

Yet I was hopeful that this twig of a plant had decided to must the courage to set forth these papery little husks. I had to marvel at the ability of nature to always find a way, to try and make something wonderful happen in this moment, not to decide that it wasn’t worth trying.

It’s almost always worth trying to do something wonderful. Trying is what keeps us reaching, gives us a reason to believe that things could be different, that tomorrow just might be that warm sunny day.

I know that when snow covers this blueberry, it will conserve its strength. It will do what it must to keep its roots healthy to survive the long, dark winter. And, I like to hope, it will be ready to grow the most delicious blueberries for us come next spring.

The growing season is ahead. It’s just not our next stop. It’s a few stops down the line. We’ll get there. In the meantime, we have to trust that it’s waiting for us.

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.