The Traveler
Once upon a time I dug up a coral sage from along the fence opposite my house. I transplanted it beneath the big oaks in my front yard. It was touch and go for two years. But then it began to propagate and soon almost the entire bed was full of plants, lush green with scarlet flowers loved by butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. And me. With random drafts of water, the plants thrive all summer.
The other day I was out admiring this season’s crop and regretting my decision to leave the hard wood from last season, something I’ve always done because the plants come back from the roots, and I didn’t want to inadvertently dig one up. But the old wood looks tacky, so next year I’ll take it down. While I was out though, I discovered something fun and amazing. There’s an old tree stump in the garden right by the water trough, and a coral sage has taken root on top of it, in the dirt and leaf litter that has fallen over the years.
I don’t know exactly what life lesson to take from that except to note that life is tenacious. I found a bluebonnet blooming in the crack of a rock one year. So, a coral sage blooming on top of a dead tree stump is probably pretty ordinary. But it does show that life can thrive even in the hardest circumstances, and when those times come, when it seems there’s no sustenance available, if you look around you just might find the equivalent of leaf litter, windblown dust, and a little water to help you make it through.