One line “Bloom for all you’re worth” Am I a flower? My shirt reads “when in doubt Bloom”. A common saying “bloom where you are planted” Do I have roots digging deep into the soil? However rich or however poor? Flowers produce seeds scatter in the wind feed the birds No one knows where one will land or what will germinate? What fruit to be produced. Do I have any?
A glum mood pervades this grey and foggy morning. The air damp, unseasonably warm. Perhaps, a storm is coming: a clash of arctic firgid air with warm Gulf moisture. An area of low pressure, depression washing out all color, all joy. How can I sing praise this day? And how can I not when I lift hands to pray?
Something about being maybe six years old on Christmas morning sitting cross-legged at the base of the Christmas tree in Grandmother’s living room staring at a pile of presents stacked together with a name on them— yours. No one else awake: anticipation, a touch of greedy longing not daring to pick up and rattle the wrapped boxes. Maybe not quite enough to gaze but no going back to bed— too early to wake up the others. All you can do is sit and wait.
Decades later— how to recapture that joyful anticipation of Christmas morning. Waiting to meet the gift of God: our Saviour swaddled in his manger or coming in the clouds.
I’d rather be in a tea room for the quiet murmured conversation with a shared pot of perfectly steeped tea
versus drinking whatever variety of tea is available in paper cups in a coffee shop trying to talk over the loud noise of the coffee barista’s machine.
A tea room with a view: a garden outside the window or if warm out on the patio. Watch a hummingbird dart amidst the red zinnias.
A place for contemplation or discussion with cherished friends or making new ones.
Where are the tea rooms now— only in my remembered imaginations? I take my tea outside onto the deck outside my dining room at home. A butterfly feasts on the lantana’s bloom.
A hound haunts my thoughts. A white dog ghosted behind my vehicle. Later a sentinel stood by the mailbox Laid her body in repose upon a bench beside the back door. No collar visible around her neck.
Wonder if a cup of water, a bowl of kibble would feed the stranger— perhaps a messenger sent from God asking, Do you love your neighbor? Do you love mercy? Is their justice for the least of my creatures?
My cats would have a fit if I invited her in.
Walk out the door with empty hands. Did I overlook a potential friend. Did I miss the whisper of God’s command? Will she come again and if lost, be found?
Place a bowl of water beside the walk. A glimpse of white stalks through the overgrowth.
c.2025 Darlene Moore Berg
postscript: one of the neighbors befriended and adopted her.