The seven foot tall swamp flowers in our summer garden are bent over now. All the way to the ground. Along with the other flowers in the garden, they gave everything they had in a show of color and fragrance all summer long. Hosted hummingbird visits, bumble bee sleep-overs, caresses & sniffs from granddaughters.
The flowers in the garden have a burned-out kind of beauty. Their show is over. They gave every drop of color, fragrance, and effort they could give. They think the best days in the garden have passed.
Right in the middle of this weary expanse a fresh new flower emerges. It thinks it’s springtime! It wraps and curls itself around everything in sight and it’s little green bud ends burst into hundreds of delicate white flowers. White puffy clouds of blooms envelope the entire garden. Floating over the skeletons of rose bushes, dried up trellises and anything that hints of fading. This autumn clematis blankets the garden every September bringing a fresh burst of life just when things looked faded and finished.
It brings multiple messages. A reminder that there are seasons for everything. Seasons to grow and seasons to rest. We captured this sentiment in an earlier piece pictured above.
A second sentiment has emerged now, with these white clouds of fresh flowers bringing new life to a garden that was spent. The latter state of the garden is far more glorious than the beginning… It’s latter is greater than it’s past.
So if you’ve gone through a weary patch, felt like you’ve given your all and the landscape of your life still looks a bit barren, let our artwork remind you that a new season can come. Good things are still ahead and your latter can be greater than your past. (Job 8:7)
The Velvet Lime Girls
Clematis climbing all over everything is a pass-along plant...originating in Pattie Lee Smith's garden, Laura's great-grandmother, dug up and passed along by Clarence Skinner, Laura's Dad.
