Wednesday, October 23, 2013

"I think I can" ...



Marlene Terry
We're enjoying the last warm days of this year, with a hard frost ahead in the near future. 
That's why I’m prompted to devote a little time and space to the lovely little purple daisies that line the front walk way at my home.

Don’t know the official name for those little flowers, but I never walk outside to the front or drive out of my garage that the sight of them just doesn’t make me happy.

However, they ARE annuals.

That means when that hard frost does come, they’ll be history!  As in the blossoms and the plant itself will die completely away and not return next spring.

The biggest problem with that is they truly do deserve to return, as they struggled all summer in scorching 100-degree heat, and braved wicked and destructive wind and hailstorms. 
… In fact, I actually thought, a time or two, they just wouldn’t survive. And if the truth be known, all that stress made them well, unattractive, to say the least. 

The earwigs also found them and were enjoying the leaves for lunch most days, leaving only large gaping holes surrounded by a green membrane as a remembrance of what was once there.
... And some cute little neighbor kids who held an invitational tag meet with friends one night, tromped most of what was left of the plants down into the ground about as far as they could go.

It was really like a miracle. 
After the heat subsided and we were thrown immediately into fall a few weeks ago, the cooler temperatures seemed to refresh those little plants and surprisingly they began to grow … and at an accelerated pace!

One day they were just wilted, ragged looking, green stringy vegetation. And then suddenly there were buds. … Then a few purple blooms appeared. 

And now?

... We’re just in awe of those gorgeous large lavender blooming bushes that as I said, make you happy just  to look at them.


It was as if they realized their time was running out to be able to show how wonderful they were and what they could do. And so they put out a supreme effort to make sure they wouldn't be forgotten. 

... Sort of like the lessons we learn in that children's tale "The Little Engine that Could."
...  Face every challenge determined to work hard and with the attitude “I think I can. … And eventually and for sure ... we will!

♦ Hope you'll let me share YOUR stories and photos here at my residence "In a Nutshell." Email me at nutshellstories@gmail.com.

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