The wren out in our lilac bushes sings from the highest place she can find, and nothing’s stopping her. It’s incredible how consistently she lends her cheerful voice to her surroundings.

Not many feet distant, our delphinium daily shows more color. We’ve been keeping track of this plant’s emersion into a full blues and purple salute.The gradual ascent of pigment (if that’s what it’s called in plant life) delights me. But the key word is gradual, from all-white buds to this: 

Change sometimes comes suddenly in our lives, but other times, creeps along slowly, so that we hardly notice.  Last night a friend said, “I’m not much of a reader, and especially not during the summer, but I couldn’t put In Times Like These down.”

Wow – considering how long and hard I worked to express Addie’s slow transformation in the backdrop of  World War II, that made my day. Or week…or month!

To Addie, who felt hemmed in and hopeless at times, change couldn’t come fast enough. But it bided its time – as occurs so often does with us. Ooh…but look … this morning, the color has spread farther for Delphie, which is what I’ve started calling my delphinium.

Meanwhile, our little wren keeps singing her heart out.

She puts all of herself into her tune. That’s what Addie did, too – her daily chicken chores, gardening, kitchen work, and even unexpected caregiving to an elderly WWI veteran strengthened her during the gradual ascent of her strength. And looking back, we can see that in our “keeping on,” we become more colorful, more empowered. That’s encouragement for today!