Saturday, August 18, 2007

Beautiful for a day...


"Beauty is a fading flower."

This old proverb must have been speaking of the daylily, and how the fading of each bloom at dusk brings with it the promise of a new bloom tomorrow. This unique plant, originating in China, seems to grow in all kinds of soil and all kinds of weather. The Chinese gave the plant as a gift to the grieving and sad, probably because it needed so little care to survive! There is no other plant that lifts your spirits with so little care! Daylilies were grown for centuries as a food crop. Their buds were harvested at bloom time, and if not eaten fresh, then dried for winter use. Even today, daylily blooms can be found adding beauty to a summer salad in some parts of the world. Besides their food value, daylily folklore speaks to it's medicinal value, used in pain relief, lessening grief and treating kidney ailments. In this family, these blooms have graced bridal bouquets, elegant dinner tables and been plucked as a treasure to share from granddaughter to grandmother. Today, I find my simple joy in knowing that my life is like these fragile beauties that grow outside my front door. We've both survived transplanting, and aren't too picky about where we were replanted! Like my blooming buddies, I've found that almost anyplace can be home, provided it's got some soil and some sunlight and some love. And like my perennial friends that color my yard in orange and yellow and red and now peach ...I keep coming back, year after year, determined to sink my roots in a little deeper, and bloom a little brighter, and yes..it seems, grow a little wider! Seems as if my flower friends and I have made the "bloom where you are planted" philosophy our own!

No comments: