Morgan H. Nichols wrote, "One day you will look back and see that all along, you were blooming."  Like this Epiphyllum Oxypetalum plant.  It takes it time to bloom. One year. And then only for one night.           

But Lily's Epiphyllum, standing tall like a sentry guarding her back door, never bloomed at all.  The Princess of the Night, as it is also known had its own timetable.   Thirteen years of processing . . . all the while watching the comings and goings of Lily's back door. 

Lily's Bloom

The calendar read September 2022, but it was mainly the past that occupied much of Lily's thoughts.  I recall the day when the moving van arrived two doors down from our house.  I made some lemon squares and walked them over and met her adult children. I knew instantly we would be friends.  Over time, we shared our stories of life, family and healings.  

There are no special days to commemorate friendship, but Lily and I recall a day worthy of celebration that seemed to honor our connection.  During one of our morning walks in the neighborhood, from out of nowhere came a shower of tiny white feathers.  At first, we thought it was snow. In June?  Can't be.  Without a bird or tree in sight, we were showered with gentle white floating feathers.  Hundreds of them, so tiny, falling down from the sky.  From where?  They rained down on us and salted the ground right where we were standing.  We were awestruck.  

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
       -----Anais Nin

It was becoming so clear; Lily was a survivor in transition.  A near fatal car crash, the will to live, the will to walk again, wounds of the heart and surviving cancer.  So much sorrow in the last thirteen years, like her namesake, the Lily. our friend was afloat on a pond, looking for her footing.  And then . . .  

Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it in our own time.
        ----Tori Amos

And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.
      ----Romans 8:28

Do Our Plants Know Us?

We wonder about Lily's Epiphyllum Oxypetalum plant.  So many questions. Why did it take thirteen years to bloom and why now?   And why the smiling face in the bloom?  Not photoshopped.  The face appeared, then disappeared, then we saw it again.

Grover Cleveland Backster's experiments might persuade you to think differently about the plants in your garden.   And he had the credentials.  See his story below.

On all levels of life, there is a profound consciousness or awareness that bonds all things together.
       ------Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, The Secret Life of Plants

Do Our Plants Know Us?

Grover Cleveland Backster Jr. said he could spot a liar a mile away and he had the credentials. Specializing in hypno- and naro-interrogation, he joined the C. I. A. where he founded the agency’s polygraph program, the science of reading heart and pulse rate as it applied to truth-telling. He later trained F. B. I. agents and became a law-enforcement legend.

Backster always wanted to learn more and wondered what might happen if a negative stimulus was induced in plants. He chose a particular Dracaena plant and hooked it to a polygraph device. He was planning to burn one leaf. But before he could even get a match, the polygraph registered an intense reaction on the part of the Dracaena. To Backster, the implication was as indisputable as it was unbelievable. Not only had the plant demonstrated fear — it had also read his mind.

I will give thanks unto thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
Wonderful are thy works,
And that my soul understands so well.
      ----Psalm 139:14

Breaking of the Shell\

The body is poised to heal, the heart takes more time.  Kahlil Gabran said, "Our pain is the breaking of the shell that opens your understanding."

GH