Daffodil Lessons

Every season my flowers teach me something.

I’m not always looking for a lesson, most of the time it is unexpected.

In true Virginia fashion, February happened and had 60 degree weather days tucked between the usual frozen wasteland. The green tops of my daffodils began breaking through the damp, autumn leaves. When I saw them coming, I knew spring was not far behind. It trigged excitement and I did a few of those foolish-dying-for-spring-things. I packed my sweaters away, ordered my garden seeds and changed my linens.

Then all that excitement turned moldy.

A heart too excited for spring soon realizes that a few hot days in the middle of February is not the final breath of winter. We’ll get hit with another storm or two and have to tough it out. The storm that was coming was brutal, packed with heavy ice rain and chilly winds. I knew it would kill off those green little tops of my daffodils, it just wasn’t their time.

Daffodils are resilient. They feel the call of the sun and they see their chance. They start growing up through the thick underbrush that has been sitting on top of them for months. Daffodils don’t stop to think or wonder if there is a chance of snowfall in the morning. They start because if they don’t, they will lose their chance of blooming for spring. All they know is to bloom and do not fear the leftover winter and the possible storms on the horizon.

A spring bulb has spent most of the winter in preparation and rest. A small stretch of warm sun is all it takes to launch them forward. The snow falls the very morning after they do, but they live. They survive and make it to spring, even when I think they’ve been lost. Their big yellow and white clusters still bloom by the dozens. They still look just as beautiful, their petals still strong covered in snow and ice.

Goodness did I see myself in that little yellow flower. I saw fear and hesitation that cripples creatives, cripples me. We’re down in the ground preparing and when the sun hits our faces we don’t spring up as the daffodils do. What do we do instead? We worry. We worry about the threat of snow clouds, that the cold will be too harsh and the winds too brutal. We don’t remember we were made for this, made to endure, withstand, survive and thrive.

For me, I sometimes don’t even realize that I am hesitating to launch forward. It takes me worrying about my flowers to use them as an example in my own life. Are you hesitating? I hope this little revelation I had is like the sun for you, once you see it, you can spring forward yourself!