I NEEDED THIS
I actually added this to my “Blog Ideas” list LAST spring, and the same thing happened again this year, so I figured I should definitely tell y’all about it. I feel like it is one small way that the Lord reminds me of the good and beautiful things in my life when I’m having a particularly rough day or week (and in last year’s case, an entire two and a half seasons).
The first spring after we moved into our house three years ago, I got very excited to plant all the pretty things. We will likely be in this home for a very long time, so I started making some big plans. Who knows if I’ll ever see half of them through, but it’s fun to dream. I wanted to plant certain flowers that I have always loved: hydrangeas, peonies, garden/heirloom roses, and a gardenia for my Meme (it was her favorite). I spent some time observing the path of the sun throughout the day so that I would know what kind of sun exposure each area had and where to plant everything. What I didn’t account for was that this would change enough come summertime that certain less hardy plants wouldn’t have a chance in this Texas heat! 🥵All of my “partial shade” areas become “full sun” during the scorching summer months.
The gardenia was doomed from the beginning. I didn’t know they were so temperamental about moisture levels. I got one full bloom off of it before it started dropping all its buds. I did everything I could and probably messed with it too much. I was just desperate to keep it alive so I could give my Meme all the beautiful gardenias. I was able to give her that one single bloom before the little shrub croaked. That was the inspiration for my gardenia logo. I drew it from a photo I took of the bloom I gave to her. There’s no way I could have known at the time that it would hold so much significance just three short years later. I was able to show her my drawing last spring when she was home for the last time. Now, just a year later, I carry it forever with me – permanently inked on the front of my left shoulder, near my heart.
Alright, before we all start bawling, you’re here for the stealth peony! A little horticulture lesson for you: peonies are actually tubers (like potatoes, yams, and cassava) and have underground stems called “rhizomes that store nutrients to survive dormancy and initiate new growth in the spring” (thank you, Mr. Douglas Conley, M.S.Horticulture Lead @ Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum). I planted my pretty little peony in a shady corner of my flower bed, hoping it would survive. They typically prefer a much milder climate, but I really wanted to try. That year, she gave me one sweet little bloom before fading away under the blistering rays of the summer sun. Between that and the way the front beds full-on flood and stay under water any time we get any significant amount of rain, I did not expect to be able to keep peonies.
Fast-forward to the spring of 2024 when our world got turned on its head and before we knew that was only the beginning… After we lost my mother-in-law, I was having some pretty scary anxiety attacks, and my other PMDD symptoms were through the roof again (after thinking I was mostly rid of them forever, thanks to microcurrent neurofeedback therapy – thankfully, a few booster sessions helped a lot). But in the midst of our smothering grief and right under our noses, spring was springing (as it always does). One day, I opened the front door to grab a package that had been delivered and saw that my roses had exploded with blooms, and right in that shady corner was a lush little peony plant, waving happily in the breeze! She had FIVE buds waiting to pop, and one bloom that was twice the size of last year’s!
While 2025 has been a stark contrast to last year and has mostly been a year of joy and growth – I still have rough days and weeks. This was the case last week when I stepped out the front door to find her, yet again, stealthy and gorgeous, boasting SIX little buds dancing and fluttering happily in the warm spring winds. As I have been watching each day in anticipation of seeing the first bud pop open, my antique roses (a bit overgrown this year because I didn’t prune them before it got warm) have also burst into bloom with their sweet and fruity perfume. We have had such a busy school year with many changes, and even though I have felt a lot of stress throughout the past months, I am reminded that sometimes I just need to slow down and literally smell the roses! Haha!
As for my little ninja of a peony – a quick Google search will result in an AI overview that describes a plant’s rhizome as being a key to surviving unfavorable seasons. Wow. Just wow. That first year, when I thought the heat had surely killed her, she was just waiting out the unfavorable seasons. She may have disappeared from sight. Her leaves and blooms may have withered away, but she was still there, under the surface, growing and waiting for favorable conditions to come along. And in His love of order and consistency, God ordained the seasons to cycle like this – spring always comes. Favorable seasons always follow unfavorable ones. My little peony doesn’t have to worry about anything because He takes care of her (I haven’t actually done a thing for her since that first year…probably not even any extra water). I would do well to remember this when it feels like the unfavorable seasons, especially the unbearable ones seem like they’ll never end – when it feels like it’s just one thing after another, one wave crashing over my head right after the next. Spring always comes again.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
MATTHEW 6:25-34
Spicy Soul Survival 