I have this amazing flowering bush in my shade garden. It's one of my favorite plants. I got it when it was a little stick in a bucket.; having looked for one for a long time. The common name is "American Beauty Berry." I even love the name! This interesting, rather nondescript bush in the summer has pale green leaves and long thin branches. The bush is an Understory, meaning it lives under taller trees for protection from the hot sun, but the branches reach to the light in the fall, producing magnificent clusters of grape like berries.This year, it is covered in so many clusters; the weight of the berries are almost too much for the long thin branches to handle. Some of them have begun to touch the ground.
One day as my husband was cutting some dead branches from the tree that shades the garden, I noticed one that was sort of Y shaped. It occurred to me that I might use it to support this top- heavy bush, lifting it's pretty flowers back up from the ground.
As I was shoving the support under the bush and pushing the Y portion into a perfect "holding" spot, it occurred to me that we are not so unlike that bush. We grow from roots where we are planted. Sometimes we flower beautifully, surprising others with the bounty of our harvest.
But like the Beauty Berry, I often find that my "branches" are weak; and I bend under the weight of even the beautiful parts of my life. And sometimes my support doesn't come from what seems to be the strongest or most obvious. It comes from the experienced. The ones who have lived a good life; a faithful and loving life. And just because they are no longer the biggest tree in the garden, or may no longer be living in this garden, doesn't mean they are not my support. The ones who lift me up. To these warriors I am thankful.
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