Morning Glory

"So, in regard to disagreeable and formidable things, 

prudence does not consist in evasion or 

in flight, but in courage." —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last night, in a dream, I was being suffocated. Someone was holding me down, menacingly covering me, imprisoning me beneath a stale quilted blanket held over head and face. As panic rose in my consciousness, the frantic beating of my heart recklessly abandons me, threatening to assist my aggressor in accomplishing my untimely death. In the moment I am most afraid, a whisper of peaceful calm encourages me to focus on my breathing, to slow my own heartbeat, to release my fear, to remember my Creator.

I enjoy this makeshift trellis in my garden, an ancient and rusty chunk of fencing salvaged from a dear friend’s backyard. Today, she no longer lives on the property where we spent hours uncovering this treasure. Violence visited. She will relocate. When she is gone, the tattered fencing will remain in my garden and every day it remind me of her.

Today a morning glory is blooming gently amid the shadows. Like a gentle whisper she will grow, using the rough and jagged metal as support throughout the brightest day and the darkest night.

Beautiful. Temporary. Courageous.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear,

but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7

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