So one of our Core Values here on the Isle, is to look for truth and beauty in the weirdness all around us…
Like this delicate little flower on my back deck, still somehow hanging on in the dried up, crispy, forgotten flower box.
It’s a stunningly beautiful afternoon as I write, the kind whereby that perfect window of temperature allows one to actually sit outside for hours and hours, in true Goldilocks fashion: not too hot, not too cold. Just right.
Ironically enough, though I love my back deck, I actually don’t spend all that much time out here, because quite frankly the “broil in the beating sun” factor always seems to quickly trump the “bask in the aesthetics” factor. What can I say? I’m a wimp.
And thus, my poor little deck flowers the past several weeks have been, shall we say, neglected. Sorely neglected. Yeah… Abandoned to the elements, which have not been so kind. What I’m trying to say is that they’re dead. Dead I tell you. All of em. Dead. Dead. Dead.
Except for this one meager Morning Glory. For whatever reason, there’s still just enough life there to give it some bloom.
I love that.
I also love how a single ray of the sun is not just shining on it, but pointing to it with laser accuracy!
It speaks volumes to me. Not the least of which is this:
You are not insignificant.
When I look at this little flower, it’s easy to think, what’s the point? Everything else around you is dead. Shriveled up. Their time is done. Yet here you are, paltry little posie, and you obviously didn’t get the memo to wrap it up, call it quits, and go blowin in the wind with the rest of the crowd. What are you still doing here, anyway, oh foolish flower? Don’t you know nobody’s really noticing you? Why do you hang on? Seriously. What’s the point?
I’ll tell you what I think the point is. We were called to bring glory to the world (hey wow, morning glory, I didn’t even plan that!) And that glory is not dependent on what everyone else around us is doing or not doing. Oh, and it’s not our job to decide when to stop bringing glory either. We’re simply called to just bring it for as long as we can, if we so choose.
Of course, no one might even seem to notice that little bit of glory we’re managing to eek out among the dead and the shriveled flora in the forgotten back deck of life. And that, of course can make us feel insignificant.
Ah, but I think you know, my misfit friend, that Someone indeed does take note. And if you will just hang on and embrace life, even and especially when all around you has done dried up, that Someone will shine on you with laser focus… at just the right time.
So yeah, I know I’m weird, but that’s what it speaks to me.
What does it speak to you? I’d love to hear!
Isle of misfits 