Learning to Shift with the Seasons

I have just finished one of my annual fall chores, the planting of Winter Survivor Pansies. The eighteen yellow and eighteen purple flowering plants have added great color to the front of my house. As their name suggests, these bright flowers last past fall and into the early days of winter. Then, they simply go dormant during the coldest time of the season. As the days begin to lengthen in late winter, the pansies unfurl new leaves and blossom even before my bulb plants shoulder their way up through the soil. They survive the coldest weather and with their early blooms splash color in my yard during an otherwise drab time of year! The bright flowers let me and my neighbors know that spring and warm weather will be arriving soon.

I don’t mind my stiff, cold fingers as I plant them, or the ache in my back as the wind whips through my light jacket because I know what these plants mean to me. They remind me that the seasons come and go, that no time stays forever. Fall leads to winter, which leads to spring, summer and fall again. Life has ups and downs. We plan for them. We live through them. As the good and the bad come our way, we learn not to make what we know to be temporary, permanent.

CHAMPS expect peaks and valleys.