7-17-23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I never have taken the trouble, either when choosing classes in college, or casually consulting the Google gods, to know the actual definition of a weed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Occasionally in my life I have owned properties large and inviting enough to grow gardens, and I have attempted their cultivation. That is, until realizing that\u2026 I have a \u201cblack thumb.\u201d I have a friend, an ex-pat from England, who has the natural British ladies\u2019 gift for planning, planting, growing enormous Technicolor and fragrant flower gardens with pathways, benches, little oases. Whidbey Island, now North Carolina: wherever she lives, gorgeous flowers grow and thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It might not be only a British thing. Another friend is American-born, and lived some years in the Netherlands \u2013 oh yes: a nation synonymous with floral splendor \u2013 and returned to the US and to a second career as a floral and garden consultant. In any event, this gift is not a Marschall thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My disinclination, or deadly thrall, might have originated in fifth grade, when a teacher asked me to use \u201chorticulture\u201d in a sentence. A budding (ha) wise guy, I innocently declared, \u201cYou can lead a horticulture, but you can\u2019t make her think.\u201d Compounding my personal War Of the Roses, the afternoon I spent in the Principal\u2019s Office was, ironically, next to a large vase of flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, my working definition of a weed is, simply, an unattractive or inconvenient flower. That works for me. This theory does not prevent me from being fascinated rather than put off by the middle ground (literally) between beautiful flowers and pesky weeds: Wildflowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With all due respect to British garden-architects and those who make living rooms and lobbies resplendent with colorful and fragrant arrangements, \u201cMother Nature\u201d (I choose to regard her as Mrs God) can outdo them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I believe that God has not only chosen to array His creation \u2013 that is, His gift to us, a beautiful world \u2013 in blankets of colorful, often surprising, beauty and fragrance, but He desires that we see lessons: a larger purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people look at flowers that struggle, plants that die, wintertimes that leave trees and plants barren, as signs of a hostile universe; death is at every turn. But for every Winter there is a Spring. Every seed will sprout. Every desert will bloom. In a version of the \u201cglass half-empty or half-full\u201d paradigm \u2013 another proposition I never understood \u2013 we can know the answer to the question, \u201cwhich prevails in the cycle: death or life?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know that Life prevails. Jesus \u2013 \u201cthe Rose of Sharon, the fairest of ten thousand flowers\u201d \u2013 proved that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This truth represents more than a nice metaphorical garden to walk through, or a bouquet we can put on our table. It is a promise. It confirms life and the renewal of life. It allows us to view life optimistically. What we may grieve over today; what we cannot see for a season; what we might cling to, despairing of any results or answers\u2026 are like seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seeds will sprout, in their own time and with patience and cultivation. And they will bloom. And bless. As flowers, they will produce more pollen and seeds. Life goes on\u2026 beautifully. And when it appears most fragile, we are reminded that life is real, life is earnest; life is determined, life is triumphant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my na\u00efve folk-wisdom, I see those vagabond reminders of life triumphant, wildflowers, as floral counterparts to another of God\u2019s colorful promises, the rainbow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I listed some strange and hostile environments where wildflowers \u201ctake root.\u201d But people are wildflowers too. Wild flowers. We know them; we should be<\/em> them, in some form we can choose. At one time in history it was common that children left their homes in their early teens, sometimes losing all subsequent contact with their families. But they took root, blooming, blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The histories of races and peoples can be traced today through the evidence of seeds and plants that were carried and cultivated in migrations of centuries past. The Virgin Mary, it is estimated, left her parents to be with Joseph when she was barely 14. My daughter moved to Northern Ireland almost 20 years ago, and is thriving faraway with her husband, children, and a wonderful career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be willing to be a wildflower seed. Eagerly await where God\u2019s breezes and the flights of His birds and bees may carry you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBe fruitful and multiply\u201d? Also take root, bloom, and be a fragrant and beautiful flower \u2013 not one of life\u2019s weeds \u2013 to be blessed, and to be a blessing, where you find yourself. Wild flowers don\u2019t care where they grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n