A Year of Gratitude – July 23, 2024

My gratitude came to me by way of a reminder. I was on my morning round of farm chores when I looked down and saw this hydrangea bloom in the making.

This bloom is the one I shared with you a few days ago. It was a cluster of tiny white buds. Not even one of them had started to open or take on any color. Yet it was already beautiful.

Today, more than half of those buds have started to take on a bluish tint. A few of them have opened to reveal gorgeous purple tipped petals. It has a long way to go, but I can already see just how marvelous it will be.

Now is the time when there is nothing for me to do but wait. I can’t make the process happen more quickly. I can’t get a glimpse of what it will look like when it is finished. I simply must wait, patiently or not, for it to unfold in its own time.

This was the reminder: I can’t control the pace of life. There are so many things that I want to move along more quickly, to bend to the timeline I would like them to follow.

That’s just not how life works. It isn’t how nature works. I can either fight against that reality or accept it and see the beauty in things happening in their own time.

I’ll admit that it isn’t always easy to see that beauty. But it’s there. The pace of things, the slow crawl of something from what it is to what it will be is, in fact, quite beautiful.

It’s fascinating that humans are so impatient for things to change and then we tend to bemoan the fact that things have changed. We want to rush to what’s next and will inevitably find ourselves feeling melancholy for the stage we have left behind.

Don’t believe me? Ask a parent how they felt when their child was a toddler. There are some difficult stages that you think that you can’t wait to be done with. Until you are. Then you find yourself thinking of those moments more fondly, find yourself wistful about leaving those moments behind.

So, I’ll celebrate this in between. I’ll look at this bloom and really see it. It’s a collection of tiny, beautiful flowers that are grand enough in this moment, and gaining strength to become even more amazing. I’ll give them the time they need. I know that it won’t be long and I’ll be bidding them farewell for the season.

Time passes quickly whether we stop to mark these slower moments or not. It marches on with or without us. I think that I’ll choose to see the grand opportunity that is in this moment and hold onto it until it is time to see what is next.

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.