I live in Minnesota. October is when the weather starts turning and we do the work it takes to get the yard ready for winter. For me that includes cutting down all my flowers and mulching the garden. All my outdoor work is done now, but I have a flower I didn't cut down.
You see, in my garden there's a crazy daffodil in bloom. Yes, it's blooming in Minnesota in October. The temperature this morning was 35 degrees.
The flower has been up for four weeks now. Even if the cold didn't daunt it, I would have thought time would have taken its toll. It hasn't, not yet. Every time I look out the window I can see this flower stubbornly clinging to life, a bright spot in a landscape that's becoming more and more barren every day. And I got to thinking that there's a lesson to be learned from this daffodil.
Do the unexpected. This flower is remarkable because it decided to bloom in October. If it had bloomed in April or May, it would have been just one more daffodil.
Don't give up. By persisting in the face of adversity (and MN weather is definitely adverse), the daffodil brought joy to one person. Me. :-) And I relieve that joy every time I look out the window.
March to your own drummer. So what if all the other flowers are resting and waiting for next spring? The daffodil wanted to bloom now, so it did. It didn't care what the others were doing.
Bend, don't break. We've had some horrific winds Tuesday and Wednesday and it's still windy today, though 25 mph is much better than 55 mph. There are large tree branches on the ground all over the place, but the daffodil moved with the wind and is still blooming beautifully in the garden.
Of all the things I thought of, I think the most important is to persevere, to hang in there even when the going is tough. It reminds me of something said during The Last Lecture (available for viewing on YouTube as well as iTunes): The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough.
