on blooming

Last September 24th, after nearly a year of planning and prepping, building, celebrating, crying, making changes and making do, we were finally moving into our house. It was a day much anticipated by everyone, but, as with any big change, also a little bittersweet. We had ended up living in our 9-month rental for 3 years and had many wonderful friends in our neighborhood. The kids, particularly, were sad to leave their bike riding, mud-pie-making, fort-hiding, Lego-building friends behind.
Chad picked up the moving truck Friday night, and on Saturday when the crew of helpers showed up to load it, we were surprised to find the most beautiful potted mum left, secretly, inside. I still don't know who the giver was, but the plant meant so much to me. It was the first thing I unloaded at the new house and it sat proudly on our front porch 'till the snow came.
When the blossoms started to fade, I was so heartbroken...I couldn't just throw it away. So, I planted it, right off the porch, in memory of my first 3 years in Colorado.
By spring, the plant wasn't looking so good. Other plants started to shed their winter brown, but the mum was just as crispy and dead-looking as ever. I started pulling back the leaves and nearly pulled it out of the ground completely, when, like Dicken in "The Secret Garden" I noticed a bit of green. It was wick, it had a light about it! (if you don't know the music from the musical, you must get it today!)
With hope, I made sure my baby plant got water every day, and after a few weeks, it started to revive.
Now, a year later, it is big and beautiful and blooming!

 Like my mum, I have grown a lot this year, too. It took longer than I thought it would to feel like I could bloom in this new place, even though it wasn't so far from my old place. But, I am grateful for the roots that are a pushing down here, for the people around me who have been my sun and water and helped me along, and for the opportunity to keep growing and blooming, year after year, in such a wonderful place as this.