The promise...

Can you believe these crazy plants?!?!?
My Mom gave me this loverly pottery garden bowl filled with
mini daffodils several years ago....at least 5...
The first time it came time to trim back the dead parts, tuck away, water sparingly until the spring....etc...etc...
I failed miserably!!!
It got shoved underneath my potting bench and completely ignored!!!
Somehow it survived...
In the late winter I was out tidying up a few things and lo and behold...
there it was...still underneath the potting bench...and what did I see?
Plenty of wee green shoots popping up through the dark, dry earth.
These flowers had had NO water of any kind for several months...
HOW could this be?
How could these plants survive let alone THRIVE?!
How? How?? HOW???

I pulled it from underneath the bench, set it out in the sunlight and gave it a nice BIG drink...
"Let's just see what happens..." I thought.
You know...that crazy thing grew and grew and grew and BLOOMED!
I placed it by my front door to brighten my comings in and goings out...every time I exited and entered my home....there it was
brightening my day...or night!
Bringing a smile to my face and reminding me of my Mother!

So, do you think that I learned my lesson?
NO!
Every time is comes to dealing with said pot o' flowers...the same thing happens...
I do manage to trim off the wilted parts...but then it gets shoved underneath my potting bench...and there it sits...
until I somehow come upon it AGAIN with it's short green shoots reminding me...."We're here! We're here!"
Kinda like the Who people in Dr. Seuss's ...Horton Hears a Who...

Last winter/spring 2009 ...when we had sooooo much snow....
I found this pot UNDERNEATH some melting snow!!!
Yes....those crazy wee green sprouts were poking out from the crispy crunchy crust of white!!!
I couldn't believe my eyes!
Yet AGAIN these flowers had survived my neglect!!!
No wonder I love them so!!!
So THIS year...last fall...my Mom and brother came over to
help me tidy up the yard in preparation for winter...
I did not tuck this pot under my bench...it was left out where it would get some rainwater...
And last week I discovered it AGAIN...those pretty, fresh green shoots...AGAIN poking thier way up through
the moist dark earth...
AGAIN...
AGAIN...
AGAIN...

How many years now? I'm not sure...
Have I learned my lesson...?
Not about plant care obviously...
But I have learned this...
It seems to me that even though we may neglect something again and again and again...
There is still the promise that it will return again and again and again...
And continue to brighten our life over and over and over...
The promise from someone who still believes in us...still loves us...no matter how much we neglect them...
That brings peace to my heart and a smile to my face...

We just need to keep on trying...again and again and again...
No matter how many years it's been...

So I'll do that... I'll keep trying...trying to learn my lessons... I promise!