The gift of darkness

Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

          ~Mary Oliver 

A year ago at Christmas time Lanny and I received a poinsettia plant as a gift. It was from a florist and was lovely with large, brilliant red blooms. It graced our home and was a lovely addition to the other Christmas decorating we had done.

I fully expected this plant to wither and die over the course of the winter. I have never, in my entire life, been able to keep a poinsettia plant living more than a few months. Once I had one that bloomed till Easter, but even it eventually dried up, dropped all it's leaves and died.

This plant did not die. Lanny, who is really the better gardener of the two of us, kept giving it water. There it sat, in our breakfast room, all last winter, through the spring and summer. By the time Halloween arrived we were amazed that it was still living. In fact, it seemed to be growing some new, much smaller little green leaves.

I had tried in the past to keep poinsettias living, and had researched how to get them to rebloom. It turns out, they need periods of longer and longer darkness in order to bring the bright red blooms out. I remembered this just recently when, out of the blue, the plant started producing bright, though much smaller, red leaves and flowers.

Apparently, sitting in the breakfast room, where natural light dominates, and experiencing longer and longer periods of darkness, the plant was stimulated to once again bloom. And as you can see by the photos, it is lovely. It makes the room we dine in brighter and more cheerful.

I got to thinking today about a couple of friends I have spent time with recently. Both of these friends have begun to emerge from periods of darkness in their lives. I have been in awe of how they have not only survived the darkness, but bloomed in spite of it. I was reminded of some very dark times in my own life. And it occurred to me that the new blooming for each of us would have been impossible without the darkness.

Therein lies the lesson--we need to embrace dark times in our lives with full confidence that eventually there will be a reblooming that will be just lovely.