What makes you notice something you’ve never seen before? On a Winter’s day, when the sky is just one big, ash-grey curtain pulled tightly shut to the ground — it reveals all sorts. Secrets you wouldn’t notice if the sun was round and clear with clouds chuff-chuffing across the blue. Every day I see the hills beyond our town, but only in Winter do I notice their arcs: clean-cut like painted scenery at the theatre. And I enjoy the little game my mind plays each year — forgetting it’s because the trees are empty, no leaves to clutter the curves of the earth. Ah yes, I remember now.
It was one of those washed out days today, overcast with a spray of fuzzy light where the sun should be. I burst out laughing on the way up the hill.
What are you doing here?
Against a fence – seemingly straight out of the brick wall below – a lone geranium bloomed. Hot pink and standing like a pout, the bundled petals made their own miniature bouquet — good for a passing mouse on his way home for dinner.
Wallflowers are supposed to be shy, though?
Backed up against the edge of a room, lacking whatever it takes to join the others.
Consider the reality that, in fact, they’ve made a choice to defy any expectation. To deny it. A small act of rebellion.
I looked over at the geranium to see if its middle leaves were flicked up in my direction... I couldn’t quite tell.
🌿🖕🌺
Setting off once more with my walk to town, I was stopped again. Lol. This time, a yellow-flowered stem had escaped — one lucky gap in the fence and it was away.
Until now I’d only ever seen the beauty of these wayward plants, but I’d never noticed their courage. Striking out, hoping for more. More light, more rain, more air, more traffic of humming wings and nectar sippers. Growing without soil most of the time, too: if there’s no grass to speak of, maybe it’s greener than green on the other side. Golden, even.
Maybe they know that somehow.
What it really takes to be a true wallflower is conviction. A resolve few of the other flowers possess.
And so was my lesson, class. All because the sky was grey instead of blue that day.
xoxo
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