The flower bed was about three feet wide and extended along the southern wall of a small brick house in Elberta, Alabama – home for my parents in their retirement. It was filled with one of my mom’s favorite plants, Hibiscus. I was commenting on the flower blooms one spring while visiting my parents. My mom informed me that this was the last day for those flowers. What do you mean? The last day? She informed me that the blossoms on a Hibiscus only last for a single day.
How can this be? Just one day? I see blooms every single day on these plants. Fortunately, a mature healthy Hibiscus has many flowers over a season. The blooms today will be replaced with new blossoms tomorrow.
No surprise that I have a couple of Hibiscus in the backyard flower beds of my home. Mom would be proud. The most mature of these two plants towers over 10 feet when it is blooming in the spring and summer. The flowers are constant throughout the season.
I have never looked at a Hibiscus the same way since that day in the yard with my mom. While I see and quickly appreciate the beauty of the blooms of the day, I also look for the blooms that will open tomorrow, and perhaps in the days ahead.
There is reason to be grateful for today’s splendor and hopeful for tomorrow’s beauty.
My Hibiscus plants remind me of the importance of a positive approach to our current situation with the Coronavirus pandemic. There is much to appreciate today. And, there is hope in the future.
Every single day, America’s front-line workers are making a difference. Medical workers, transportation drivers and grocery store employees are part of the essential critical structure of our country. Medical teams, despite their own potential risks, make sure that we continue to receive the best medical care in the world. Transportation drivers ensure that the most important deliveries are made each day, including food and life-saving medication. And grocery personnel make sure that there is available food to purchase each day.
A positive successful approach to life is full of gratitude and hope.
Essential transportation services, medical care and food are critical to our daily lives. I am thankful for all of those individuals who are reliably on the job. They are bright blooms every single day in the midst of much sadness and pain from the pandemic.
There is also hope. Medical treatment and future vaccines are aggressively being pursued by the most talented and smartest individuals on this planet. Mounting evidence indicates that this hope is not in vain. The outcome is predictable. There is every reason to be thankful to live in a country full of heroes making personal sacrifices so that we can live free of fear. And there is every reason to hope for a country that has conquered every challenge in the past. We will conquer this one in the future.
A great life, one that we all want to live, is full of two essential ingredients…
Gratitude and hope.
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