The Volunteers
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank
I was greeted the other morning with a surprise when I picked up the newspaper. In the garden islands of my yard stood three beautiful perfectly red volunteer flowers. Not together, in three separate spots, but so perfectly placed. These flowers were not in the garden last year. I am not so sure which types of flowers they are but I know they are exactly what was needed in those islands.
I'm sure the previous owner planted those flowers years ago and the recent harsh winter revived their passion to grow. The point is they volunteered themselves to be there.
I remember the first time my mother called a flower a volunteer. It sounded so funny. We were in North Carolina and I was in Kindergarten. Because of the school systems back then, I was in a half day kindergarten and she picked me up for the afternoons. Those afternoons together were spent jarring vegetables and fruits from the garden, riding horses, and planting plants. We would walk the vast acres of our country home and mom would tell me all about the flowers. One day we stopped and she pointed at a perfect flower and told me it was a volunteer. Somehow, by some miracle, this flower had found it's way here to our garden and it was special. We didn't know we needed it there but it knew it was needed.
I had long forgotten that moment until the other morning when I looked up with the paper in hand and saw my volunteers. They stopped me in my tracks. Absolutely beautiful.
That is how volunteers work. When you least expect them, when you have no idea that you could ask for more, they are there. The perfect answer to the question you haven't asked. Volunteers know exactly where to place themselves. Volunteers fit in where they are planted. Volunteers jump in and complete the picture as if they have been a part of our grand scheme from the beginning.
Volunteers are a gift.
"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." ~Nelson Henderson
I was greeted the other morning with a surprise when I picked up the newspaper. In the garden islands of my yard stood three beautiful perfectly red volunteer flowers. Not together, in three separate spots, but so perfectly placed. These flowers were not in the garden last year. I am not so sure which types of flowers they are but I know they are exactly what was needed in those islands.
I'm sure the previous owner planted those flowers years ago and the recent harsh winter revived their passion to grow. The point is they volunteered themselves to be there.
I remember the first time my mother called a flower a volunteer. It sounded so funny. We were in North Carolina and I was in Kindergarten. Because of the school systems back then, I was in a half day kindergarten and she picked me up for the afternoons. Those afternoons together were spent jarring vegetables and fruits from the garden, riding horses, and planting plants. We would walk the vast acres of our country home and mom would tell me all about the flowers. One day we stopped and she pointed at a perfect flower and told me it was a volunteer. Somehow, by some miracle, this flower had found it's way here to our garden and it was special. We didn't know we needed it there but it knew it was needed.
I had long forgotten that moment until the other morning when I looked up with the paper in hand and saw my volunteers. They stopped me in my tracks. Absolutely beautiful.
That is how volunteers work. When you least expect them, when you have no idea that you could ask for more, they are there. The perfect answer to the question you haven't asked. Volunteers know exactly where to place themselves. Volunteers fit in where they are planted. Volunteers jump in and complete the picture as if they have been a part of our grand scheme from the beginning.
Volunteers are a gift.
"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." ~Nelson Henderson
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