Bloom

“If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven,
then, to the measure of that heaven-born light,
Shine, Poet! In thy place, and be content…”
~William Wordsworth~

“And now in age I bud again…
Thou hast a garden for us where to bide.”
~George Herbert~

In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, Mary Lennox initially hates the moors of the English landscape; in fact, when she arrived at “Misselthwaite Manor…she had perhaps never felt quite so contrary in all her life.” Martha, who is a cheery housemaid, waxes eloquently with her Yorkshire accent about how much she loves it, because “it’s covered wi’ growing things…it’s fair lovely in spring an’ summer…It smells o’ honey an’ there’s such a lot o’ fresh air—an’ the sky looks so high an’ the’ bees an’ skylarks makes such a nice noise hummin’ and singin’.” Martha’s staunch opinion is that Mary just isn’t used to the moors, and in the course of time, Mary asks her wealthy uncle for a “bit of earth.” Sparked out of the depths of despondency and a myopic, selfish upbringing, the prospect of nurturing the locked-up garden back to life lures Mary to bloom lively and hale, herself.

Mary’s perspective had changed; as she tended her secret garden and watched the flowers bud again, she too grew to love the moors, and she began to bloom where she was planted. What is needed in all our lives, at times, is a paradigm shift; a change in perspective. A call to the recollection that the proverbial grass in not greener on the other side.

If we were to press pause on our criticisms and complaints about any negative current circumstances; if we were to recognize our frets and turn them over to thankfulness, how much lighter our hearts would be. In the well-loved Father Tim series by Jan Karon, the reader is admonished to live in this way by his own admission: 

“If I were charged with having a goal, it would be to live without fretting—to live more fully in the moment, not always huffing about…to live humbly—and appreciatively—with whatever God furnishes” (Light from Heaven, p.4). Though we look out on a bleak landscape, such as Mary across the wild moors, what treasures might we find nestled in among the growing things, if indeed we allow ourselves to grow through such a season.

Our daily stage of life does not have to be set to perfection in order to live appreciatively. The setting in which to give thanks and bloom within the context of my circumstances is not necessarily in a church at an altar or before the great expanse of a stunning view; the setting takes place in my own home, maybe while I’m giving a piano lesson to a student, in the throes of meal preparation, or helping my child with homework. The key is to not grow dizzy spinning the proverbial plates of  multitasking, when we think we are improving efficiency but losing out on our horizontal relationships.

When speaking about grapes in “Struggling Vines Produce Better Wines” by Jamie Goode, the somewhat counterintuitive fact he addresses is that if “you take a grapevine and make its physical requirements for water and nutrients easily accessible, it will give you poor grapes.” The struggle for nutrition results in better quality grapes. See the connection? “Place someone in a near-perfect environment, giving them every comfort and all that they could ever want to satisfy their physical needs, and it could have rather disastrous consequences for their personality and physique.”

Like the song lyrics from above, He is the God who can “tread the ground inside my heart” and bring fruit from barrenness, who transforms an ordinary day into the extraordinary, a natural encounter into supernatural, who uses the ordinary man or woman to perform the extraordinary, who cause a bleak moorland to bloom with the lovely life of “the bees an’ skylarks” and “hummin’ and singin’.”

The bottom line is that complaining and criticism cannot coexist with a thankful heart (Bill Johnson). When we allow our roots to go deeper, we “will take root below and bear fruit above” (Isaiah 37:31). When we rise up with a posture of thankfulness, we can bloom where we are planted, remembering the potential lies not in the soil but in the seed! Speak to your soul:  Bloom!

“Where [He] walks the flowers bloom;
[You] turn deserts into gardens when we move.
This barren land can bear good fruit;
Come tread the ground inside my heart and make it new.
Let it bloom!”
“Bloom”

“Any of us can tell in a moment whether our lives are right or not.
Are we doing God’s will?
…a man may be doing God’s work and God’s will
quite as much by hewing stones,
or sweeping streets, as by preaching or praying.
So the question means just this,
Are we working out our common every-day life
on the great lines of God’s will?”
~Tileston, Joy and Strength, p.22~

“It blossomed by the summer sea,
A tiny space of tangled bloom
Wherein so many flowers found room
A miracle it seemed to be!”
~Celia Thaxter~