With Patience Emerges Beauty

By Ana Borden

For years, I have been testing and growing native plants in our backyard. I love the idea of bringing vegetations meant to thrive in our unique area and climate while nourishing bees, butterflies and other wildlife.

Purely accidentally, I came home one day with the wrong native sunflower plant. I expected a low flowering bush, but by late summer, thick green leafy stems, nearly 6 feet to 8 feet long had grown.

By October, the most detailed, long yellow blooming Louisiana Swamp Sunflowers brightened our yard. It is an absolutely stunning – and a little chaotic – display with our radiant blue walls of our home serving as its backdrop.

For months, they were actually a nuisance. The beds grew roughly out of line, and it became a hurdle mowing under the sunflowers’ long stems.

Today, we enjoy week three of their blooms, with multiple bouquets in our rooms that have also been shared with family and friends. I realize that they are serving as a reminder that sometimes it takes months to see the beauty in something or the fruit of our labor, time and sacrifices.

Patience is a virtue, and this is an example of good things that happen in time. Just like everyone else, I had different expectations earlier this year, but like the growth of these sunflowers, I will continue to stay patient to see what blooms from these long months.

“You also must be patient. Keep your hopes high, for the day of the Lord’s coming is near” James 5:8.