Buds to Blossoms, Patience to Rewards

Today I am grateful for my friend Jill and time for coffee together. I am also grateful for a good find in a bookshelf for my "office" space. 

Pella, Iowa, where Darcy and I were visiting earlier this week, has a famous Tulip Festival each year in early May. It would be nice to see all of those tulips in bloom, but I appreciated the quiet, non-crowded late March. We did see the potential in hundreds of early tulips getting started, like the ones in the first picture below.

We also saw some magnolia bushes like the one in this next picture. It won't be long before it abounds with white blossoms. After we traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in 2000 and appreciated seeing them there, Darcy looked for a heartier breed that could survive the cooler weather here. 

He found them and we planted two magnolia bushes at our first home in town. They were always the first thing to bloom each spring. We miss witnessing the blooming, but sometimes we can catch a glimpse if we happen to take our running route past our old house. 

Buds to blossoms. Patience to rewards. We may be surrounded by too much instant gratification in our society, but these pictures remind me that nature knows how to take time. We each know how to take time. We just have to be more mindful in practicing patience. That is a good goal for today.

I miss much when I am in a hurry. I say things I shouldn't when I stop being a patient listener.
I will work on pausing patiently today.