The Lone Flower

I love to be surrounded by nature and particularly plants. My close friends understand this so I am gifted many plants. I pay close attention to my plants so notice when they start to bud and when they appear to be in distress.

I have a couple of Christmas Cactuses and for a few years, they have bloomed just in time for Christmas living true to their names filling my home with lovely pink and white flowers. Last Christmas, I noticed the white Christmas cactus bloomed around October/November and by Christmas time, it was just a green cactus with no flowers in sight.

The pink one did not show any sign of budding much less having some flowers. I kept monitoring it and this month, I noticed one tiny little bud showing. I waited for more to show up but nothing else was forthcoming. My lone bud continued to flower and finally opened up.

As a plant enthusiast and a person who looks for meaning and lessons in the simple things around me, I can’t help but wonder what this plant might be teaching me.

Surprisingly there’s no other bud in sight so no hope of more flowers coming out. It’s the same plant, so why is it that only one bud made it through? Why are there no signs of any more buds waiting?

How did this one flower make it through when it looks like the timing isn’t right for the plant to bud? I am not a horticulturist and there might be perfect explanations for why this has happened.

A few thoughts that have resonated with me as I have watched my Christmas cactuses are:

Surprises are good

Although I expected my white Christmas cactus a few months later, I was still pleasantly surprised and happy that I got an early Christmas present in the form of those flowers showing up earlier than expected.

Looking back, they showed up when the weather was quite dull and having a burst of colour when all the trees around my house had lost their leaves was brilliant. I enjoyed them by not focusing on the wrong timing.

We can’t let routine dictate our lives otherwise we won’t enjoy the surprises that show up. We can enjoy what we get rather than what we hoped for if we change our perspectives.

Unfruitfulness in a season doesn’t mean it’s all over

Just because my cactuses did not bloom at the expected times, it didn’t mean their potential to bloom was gone. They just needed more time and continued nurturing; and this is not different for humans.

Some people will be late bloomers, some will bloom out of their expected seasons but given time and the right conditions, we know blooming remains on the cards for everyone.    

Don’t be afraid to stand alone

My lone flower has intrigued me the most as it has gone against the grain to bud and finally bloom even though it does this alone with no company.

I also see that every tip could have budded but they haven’t. The lone bud hasn’t budded because it had more water, sunlight or benefitted from anything differently from the rest but somehow it beat all the odds to show up.

Children who grew up in the same house can turn out differently and my late father would say we all have the same 24 hours each day but what we produce can be vastly differently. Each one of us runs our own race alone. If my lone flower were human, would they have continued to bud knowing all others in their group aren’t going to?

There’s a saying in my language which translated loosely means you don’t work to someone else’s timeline. It sounds more colourful as when directly translated it actually says you don’t use someone else’s clock to do your own work.

So work and live faithfully and don’t be distracted from your own journey by running someone else’s race. Thanks for reading and sharing this week’s blog and don’t forget to push through and shine anyway.

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