I Still Love Lantana

When I owned my home, one of the flowers I planted early on were about 4 different Lantana plants. How I looked for the first bloom of those plants each spring and said goodbye to the late blooms up through November before my plants rested for winter. What a joy to be able to plant something really small and just watch it go through it's cycles of life each year getting bigger and bigger.

I ran into a woman at the nursery once who loudly proclaimed her dislike of lantana saying how she wanted new plants each year, each season. I think my love of lantana goes along with the way I love in life. I like the things I love to last. I enjoy going through the different seasons with those things. I remember one time seeing a woman throw out her "old" plants once and wishing I had the guts to go dumpster diving. What a pleasure it is to have something that looks near death, no green on it whatsoever, just brown sticks and then one day turn around and there it is, a green leaf that the next day turns into two or more leaves and then a bloom. Ah, there is nothing better to me.

Maybe that is why I had so much hope for my marriage because the things that endeared me to growing older with my husband, you know, the lanky branches, were the very things that I looked forward to seeing new growth on each year. Oh well, those were the very things he disdained. Guess what, he is so missing out on current and future blooms because both my daughter and I are full of them.

Guess what else, I'm ok. I have two lantana plants in pots here at my apartment, one blooming, one not, but I'm gonna keep them, that and I am going to buy myself two new Lantanas. After all, I still love Lantana and find great joy in watching them change from season to season.

Today I ask you to join me in prayer for growth and for hanging in there and for not giving up hope - even if it seems nothing is happening because one day, when you least expect it, God moves and Lantanas grow.

Hallelujah!