Late to the Party

I always think I’m the only one paralyzed by overthinking.

Turns out I’m not.

Even a hydrangea can worry herself to the last minute, missing the garden party’s peak.

It’s fall in Ohio, and my garden should have been clipped and composted by now, but once again I’m struggling to finish before the wind whips and temperatures plummet. I thought about tackling the project too long, deciding the next day and the next day and the next…

So here I am.

But not alone.

Clippers in hand, I found a small white hydrangea had waited too late to grow into a gorgeous puffball of pink and then rosy maroon. I cupped her in my hand, whispering, “I understand. It takes a lot to bloom.”

It’s true for all of us, one way or another.

Surrounded by her siblings, admired for their stunning color, she could not imagine a way to compete. While they stood proudly on their stems, she worried. Still, blossoming into her first white ever took effort, and I reminded her of that. She hit Phase 1. Also, another spring will come. Winter gives her time to consider Phase 2, possibly Phase 3. (I don’t want to add pressure.)

Everyone struggles with a task that seems easy.

I mentioned to her that in second grade, I simply could not understand how 5 nickels could be a quarter. How could 5 things be the same as 1 thing? I asked my dad, as he stacked coin after coin in front of me. Although I knew she couldn’t imagine money, I felt she got my point at some gardenly level.

It never hurts to try relating. Sympathy helps.

The valuable lesson is that she tried. She dared to open, no matter the off-center timing. Yes, it would have been easier in the western summer sun and refreshing rain, but she just wasn’t ready. 

She did not achieve the expected evolving colors, but neither did she fail.

To the very end, she was herself: a hydrangea.

No one could argue that.