Still Blooming

Have you heard the phrase, “Bloom where you’re planted”? It’s generally meant as encouragement to live your best life in whatever circumstances you find yourself. Today, I’m speaking up in admiration for something that is, literally, blooming where it was planted.My husband and I are not gardeners. Not even a little. We moved into our house more than 20 years ago and admired the gardens created and maintained by the previous owners, including a collection of roses, many perennials, and even a multi-tiered strawberry patch. Then we gave away cuttings from the roses, ate one summer’s small batch of strawberries, and got rid of it all. Now we have only the lowest-maintenance plantings around the house, and pay people to come out once a year to trim the bushes and mulch the beds. All the lush beauty of the original gardens is gone.

Except for one tulip plant.

We have never done anything to prolong this plant’s life. We don’t fertilize or water it, we don’t deadhead the flowers or lift the bulbs or do any of the other things my gardening friends talk about. Five years ago we built an extension off the back of the house including the wall you see in the picture, cutting through the flower bed with heavy machinery inches from where the tulip lived. Still, every spring, there it is, raising its bright red heads to the sky in supreme disregard for its uncomfortable situation.

It’s just a plant, obeying its blind tropisms, nothing more. But every time it comes back, I can’t help feeling admiration for its gutsy determination. Silly, yes, but it encourages me. I see it and tell myself, “Bloom where you’re planted.”

Posted in response to the WordPress photo challenge, Admiration.