November's Flower

As a child, I always questioned the determinance of the mum for November's flower. April has the Sweet Pea, June the Rose, December the Paperwhite, and then November -- the mum. How boring, this one flower with loads of petals might come around every fall. Only to hold on for a bit of time until the chill comes through the Florida air to cause it to drop those slender petals. No scent, no picking ability really, and just a disappointment.

Alas, I was wrong. Here in Maryland mums are a prolific foliage. A friend moved from South Florida and was greeted with a scraggly, ugly looking plant near her driveway. She was certain that it should be pulled out and mulched. While contemplating the soon-to-be short-lived decrepit plant, a neighbor came along and noted, "That's a mum. It'll bloom in the fall -- don't pull it out, wait for it." And come the fall, it did bloom.

These days there are mums growing beyond belief in Maryland. There are a number of roadside farm stands here. They have displays for their items of sale: corn, apples, tomatoes, peaches (fyi - I now know I enjoy white peaches the best. Carolyn's Orchard carries about 6 different types of peaches. Not sure if you really knew that was possible.) And then you see the mums -- rainbows of color, beautiful bushes of blooms that make one happy to drive through the country side.

Waiting for things -- jobs, relief from pain, relationships -- they often seem to have a bismal outcome. And yet, in the fall, when the excitement of Spring and Summer have fallen away, just when it seems that life is sure to harbor itself up for Winter, along comes Fall with a long forgotten bloom of harvest. The harvest comes in with such surprise and hope that we are astonished things could occur in such stalemates of life. What joy we find when the mums arrive and remind us yet again that God's sweet promises of life are still there ... before (and sometimes after) the winter ... to realize the full beauty of his ways.

I think I might be okay with mums as November's flowers. Now to work on understanding the Topaz...anyone want to supply me with some to study?

Anyone?