Flowers Begin in Winter
“Look at a garden, almost any garden, and it will look back at you, breathing an essential loveliness in your direction.”― Luci Shaw, An Incremental Life: Poems
“I pray my soul will welcome always that small seed. That I will hail it when it enters me.
I don’t mind being grit, soil, dirt, mud-brown, laced with the rot of old leaves, if only the seed
can”― Luci Shaw, Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation
Flowers begin in winter
Seeds taking root in tilled soil, hardened, sleeping
Preparation in rest, stillness, pause
Gifts of wintering well
Spring is the end first, then the beginning
Color, vibrancy, beauty
Planted in dirt, reaching for light
The journey of flourishing.
“We cannot truly welcome light until we’ve lived a darkness deeper than what nightly covers the land with its dusky blanket.”― Luci Shaw, An Incremental Life: Poems
