Bloom
Styer’s Peonies, Chadds Ford, PA
Nature has a way of teaching us life’s most timeless lessons.
Nature never worries. She never frets about when she will get it all done. She questions not her bouts of barrenness. Her wisdom pats firm her knowing that the drought will pass, the cold will thaw, the wreckage from the storm will be cleared. Her seasons are but a part of the process. She rests & replenishes when she must & unapologetically receives all that she needs to nourish & flourish.
She is her own muse. She inspires herself to be as radiant & vibrant as she pleases, knowing her beauty is pleasing to others but chooses to show it off lavishly just for her.
She obsesses not over any obstacle in her way but simply grows through or around it – whether it be concrete or electric wires, it matters not. She chooses hope, she chooses perseverance.
No matter the catastrophe, no matter the devastation, she will rise. She will choose life. She understands loss as a necessary pruning.
Most nobly, she never loses hope for she understands the grander scheme of it all.
Such are the wise who know this, too. Steadfast and courageous are those who don’t give up faith who choose joy in spite of it all.
Such is me and such is my dear, sweet friend Nicole.
Once upon an adolescence, we were brought closer through shared, albeit separate loss. Her mother lost the battle to cancer a few years after my dad did. Amidst confusion we found hope, through the grief, we chose love.
I haven’t stopped being inspired by this angelic being in the 20-some years that I’ve known her. It’s no surprise that she found the most perfect way to celebrate her birthday - amidst a field of perfect peonies that were planted in the 18th century. We honored life by being silly, playful, & wonderfully feminine. We laughed until we cried & blissed out on the miracle that is life.
Above all, we bloomed
