In one of my first blogs, I shared a picture of an African violet that I grew from a single leaf. It had just bloomed for the first time, only a few months after the leaf cutting was taken. That bloom stayed for a few weeks, then died off, and it has taken many months for that plant and others that I’m growing from leaves to bud and bloom abundantly. Here, I’m sharing the latest flower to emerge – frills and all (this grew from one leaf, too)l.

Because of my lupus, I cannot go out in the sun and garden. But my affinity for “digging in the dirt” is still alive and well with cultivating these African violets indoors. Besides the beauty and satisfaction of seeing something go from leaf to blossom, I am learning to like the lessons of patience and calm cultivation that these plants require. And I’m realizing even more deeply that, in our own lives with chronic illness, the cultivation of our souls and the bountiful harvests in our lives take just that patience and calm, too. Each watering with the Word, each pruning, however painful, enables us to gather strength and wisdom in order to be just what God wants each of us, individually, to be. What a power witness that is!

There are many more buds appearing, and soon to be many more blossoms. In time. In good time. In God’s very good time.

Blessings for the day,
Maureen