I Was Thinking... Survival

Early last spring, I started marigold and zinnia seeds in my makeshift greenhouse in the basement. Around March, most Minnesotans are fed up with winter and try to rush spring by growing something green. My basement hothouse did the job and by the time you could put things in the ground, I was ready.
I planted over 50 zinnias and as many marigolds with visions of vivid colors all summer. However, mother nature had other ideas. A late spring storm brought a narrow band of hail directly over our part of town and the garden. The once vibrant young plants now looked like shredded stems. The rhubarb next to the flowers were also cut to ribbons. My plans for a showcase garden seemed doomed.
But nature can surprise you.
Although I felt bad that my hard work and visions had been dashed, I realized they were just flowers and not a farmer’s crop that could result in a great economic loss. I pulled out some of the plants that were total losses and just left the rest. Instead of inspecting the flowers daily as I had before the storm, I basically ignored them because I hated to look at the damage. The frequent June rains also kept me out of the garden. But by early July I started to see some changes. New leaves had replaced some of the broken ones and some flower buds were actually forming.
Despite the early devastation, many of the plants had survived and were going to make it. Now I can walk in the garden among zinnias and marigolds in full bloom. While I had given up hope, nature found a way to survive and thrive.
In 1994 our family took our last vacation before our oldest daughter headed off to college. We visited Yellowstone National Park. One area seemed like a total waste. A forest fire a year or so before had charred and blackened almost everything.
But what first seemed like a destroyed region now showed all kinds of rebirth. While the towering trees showed the scars of the fire, new green shoots covered the forest floor. Forest rangers later explained how fire is often necessary to rejuvenate a forest to make it a better place for wildlife.
Sometimes natural disasters can also show the survival skills of people.
While we can warn people about tornadoes, we can’t do much to protect them from the devastation they inflict. Within minutes, whole sections of cities can be destroyed. After most such natural disasters, people demonstrate their initial goodness as neighbors help each other. It is not uncommon for complete strangers to show up to help.
Communities devastated by tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, or fires most times pick up the pieces and start over. There is a resilient spirit that resonates with some people that when you get knocked down you get back up and start over.
Everyone’s life results in a variety of highs and lows. We celebrate the birth of a child and grieve the loss of a loved one. I’ve never known anyone that has smooth sailing through their whole life. Someone much smarter than me once commented, “it’s not what happens to you in life that matters as much as how you react to it.” Some people can look at the bright side of things while others find a way to find a dark cloud on a sunny day. They are constantly victims of a world out to get them.
My one grandmother was the fifth of nine children. She ended her formal education at the second grade because she had to help take care of her mother. During her life she attended the funerals of all her siblings, her husband and four of her five children. She lived through two world wars, the Great Depression, and a bout with TB.
Yet she was one of the most positive people I’ve ever known. Most of her life she spent caring for other people. In a newspaper interview about her life she commented, “When you start feeling down, get busy.”
Getting older often makes you more philosophical because you realize you aren’t going to be immortal and have fewer days ahead than behind. It can turn a person into a grumpy curmudgeon whose main duty is to complain about life and the state of the world. But others have the ability to reflect on how they’ve been blessed and look for better things to come. It is often a choice.
 
Did You Ever Wonder? — Do pyromaniacs wear blazers?