The grand dahlia experiment is about over. Last spring I planted three tubers. In September I had one flower bloom. And today, in late October, just after an evening and early morning of below freezing temps, I can report and show Dahlia #2.
It’s a beauty and worth the wait.
With the coming of frost, is the grand dahlia experiment now over? Not quite. There are tubers to harvest, divide, store and to be replanted in the spring. Each step is something new for me and an opportunity to learn about and enjoy a small part of the Creator’s world.
The trail I walk on just about every morning is a mostly flat meandering path following a creek. There are woods, fields and marshes that change with the seasons. Today’s flowers are different from a month ago. Yet day by day things pretty much remain the same.
Sometimes unexpected things come along that surprise and delight. Like this morning. I was walking along, turning a corner that bends the path into a swampy area, when I met this curious traveler.
We stood facing each other for a few minutes, long enough for me to get out my phone and snap a few pictures. Delightful.
Today, I turned a corner that I’ve walked hundreds of times seeing the same scene almost every time, until today. A surprise. A gift. And then more.
So it is with life. We travel in our day-to-day routines. We work. We play. We struggle. We enjoy. We fret.
We worry about what’s next, what’s around the next corner. It’s impossible to tell. Yet the One who created fawns and flowers walks with us as we travel our straight and crooked paths. He tells us there’s no need to worry.
So today, praise God who has all our corners, beginning to end, in view. Praise the one who reminds us “Do not be afraid… you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1 Today’s gift.
While I took my morning walk I noticed that the overnight rain left droplets of water on things along the trail, in particular, on the grasses. The beaded drops looked like tiny diamonds.
My after-walk morning was empty and post-rain gloomy, so I decided I needed to hunt for more diamonds… with my camera. Off to Crane Park I went. Here is some of what I saw.
These droplet diamonds brightened my day. I’m sure you have brightened the day for someone today as well. Whether you know it or not, God the creator of all, is at work through the good things you do today.
“… for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.” Song of Songs 2:11-12