This is a jam packed Monday in a Jam Packed October in a JAM PACKED AUTUMN at work. Needless to say, I'm pushing back the mounting tension growing inside because no matter how I feel, what I know is that this week can be handled if I just take everything step by simple step. As I cast around for the right image for my sidebar picture, something I can carry with me throughout the week, I stumbled upon this photo of one of my favorite flowers, the humble polygonum known as smartweed . This is a ditch flower - fringing the roadsides and damper edges of farm fields with leafy green all summer. It's a hardy, even invasive, plant that, in our neck of the woods, throws up pink bud clusters that never seem to open. They wave and dance with the slightest breeze. They cluster together like old schoolmates. They show up in autumn to add to the sense of harvest fullness. They last a long time.
What I love about this flower is it's simple beauty - made up of a basic shape and a basic color. It quietly fills in the gaps of a flower arrangement or, if left in its habitat, delights with a swath of pink foam above a green base to cheer you as you tool along down the lane. Simple, quiet, step by step dependability, one thing at a time. Yes. This flower reminds me that all I have to do to make it through a chaotic week is to quietly, simply, one thing at a time, take each step - and it will be Friday and I'll look back on the pink swath of completion with satisfaction.
Happy Monday!
Have you ever tried dyeing with it? Every time I pass it, I think of that, but I've not ever attempted it.
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