A New Year Day message…..

” Where there is hope, there is Faith.Where there is FAITH, miracles happen”

Ushering the New Year 2016, with a lot of hope, I started my day with enthusiasm, going about my daily chores with a spring in my step. Little did I notice, the miracle unfolding near my fireplace, gently yet with a certainty only nature commands. “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished” said Lao Tzu, how true, I thought as I stood mesmerized, with what I saw in front of me.

This past summer, when we walked into the garden store to pick our vegetables & herbs to grow in our containers, my kid spotted a grape plant shoot nearby & wanted to add it to the collection.Trying to convince him saying it needed more space, did not seem to discourage him, so, not wanting to spoil  the enthusiasm of a budding green thumb, I agreed to buy the grape shoot & we headed home. Dutifully, we found each plant it’s container, and so did the grape plant.The whole of Summer all the plants grew in our containers, yielding a beautiful harvest of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants , basil and so on filling our hearts with joy & pride, and so did our precious grape plant under the loving care of my lil’ one who had built a support with long sticks he found on his walks in the woods, for the creeper to grow on.

Summer, came and went and so did Fall.Our Grape plant grew lusciously holding on to it’s stick, resembling a bean stalk in the Jack and the Bean stalk story.It was my kid’s joy and pride each day he came back from school & measured how much it had grown .Fall went by uneventfully, the temperature’s remained warm for the beginning of winter, so I let the plants stay outdoors for a little while, longer.

One cold night the wind blew so hard, the next morning, I hurried to my patio to see a grape plant that had just wilted, my heart broke, my kid was in tears, the wind chill had been too much for the tender plant.I was annoyed with myself  for not moving it indoors earlier .Yet, with a heavy heart  filled with hope, I moved, the now, almost dry plant indoors. There was just a dry stem within the tomato cage I had shifted into the container earlier for the plant to twine upon.It was more of a bicep build activity, I thought, as I carried the plant indoors near the fireplace than the plant surviving .Each morning, I saw the dry stem, my heart sunk a little deeper thinking about , how gloriously this plant had stood outdoors in the summer, yet there was little I could do at this point . Each day , I watered the dry stem hoping for a miracle.Nothing happened for almost a month.

Around Christmas time, I saw what looked like a tender green shoot at the top of a dry stem, hope grew wings, I held on to the faith.The holiday season took over, things got a little busy around home, then came a bout of cold & sickness, the plant was forgotten amidst all the chaos…….until this morning !

There she stood….. a ray of Hope on New years’ day morning, gently , tenderly, growing strong each day, climbing up with new hope & life. I stood mesmerized at the miracle of it all.What better message could have been there to begin the New Year ?

New growth from a totally dried out stem……

……and there she stood with her New Year message!

The message so clear and loud….