Written by Jeremy Hawkins
Blooming Patterns
The other morning I was out in my yard after a workout when I began to think about things blooming in different seasons. I noted that our limelight hydrangea was getting ready to bloom. Down the fence line, the butterfly bush was in full bloom already. Our knockout roses are in their second bloom (so to speak), as the rose petals from a few weeks ago have fallen off and new flowers have taken their place. Pastel zinnias have begun to bloom in our garden area and will last for the remainder of the summer and into the fall. The same can be said for the marigolds.
Daffodils are some of the first to bloom with lilac and snowball bushes close on their heels. Somewhere between then and now columbines bloom, the clematis grows up its trellis and graces us with deep purple flowers, and the peonies overflow with big, whitish-pink flowers. Much of the early blooming plants now are just green, but they still add their beauty to the yard. I love that flowers and plants have different blooming patterns and schedules. This allows me to enjoy a full, colorful yard all summer long. (I credit my wife for planting things that allow our yard to have something in bloom throughout the growing season.)
“Snowman”
About an hour after I finished up in my yard, I heard this story1 while listening to a podcast and felt it related well to my thoughts on flowers:
Late to the Auction
“Harry de Leyer was late to the auction on that snowy day in 1956, and all of the good horses had already been sold. The few that remained were old and spent and had been bought by a company that would salvage them.
Harry, the riding master at a girls’ school in New York, was about to leave when one of these horses—an uncared-for, gray gelding with ugly-looking wounds on its legs—caught his eye. The animal still bore the marks that had been made by a heavy work harness, evidence of the hard life he had led. But something about him captured Harry’s attention, so he offered $80 for him.
“Snowman”
It was snowing when Harry’s children saw the horse for the first time, and because of the coat of snow on the horse’s back, the children named him “Snowman.”
Harry took good care of the horse, which turned out to be a gentle and reliable friend—a horse the girls liked to ride because he was steady and didn’t startle like some of the others. In fact, Snowman made such rapid improvement that a neighbor purchased him for twice what Harry had originally paid.
But Snowman kept disappearing from the neighbor’s pasture—sometimes ending up in adjoining potato fields, other times back at Harry’s. It appeared that the horse must have jumped over the fences between the properties, but that seemed impossible—Harry had never seen Snowman jump over anything much higher than a fallen log.
But eventually, the neighbor’s patience came to an end, and he insisted Harry take back the horse.
Champion Dreams
For years, Harry’s great dream had been to produce a champion jumping horse. He’d had moderate success in the past, but in order to compete at the highest levels, he knew he would have to buy a pedigreed horse that had been specifically bred to jump. And that kind of pedigree would cost far more than he could afford.
Snowman was already getting old—he was eight when Harry had purchased him—and he had been badly treated. But, apparently, Snowman wanted to jump, so Harry decided to see what the horse could do.
What Harry saw made him think that maybe his horse had a chance to compete.
The Unbelievable
In 1958, Harry entered Snowman in his first competition. Snowman stood among the beautifully bred, champion horses, looking very much out of place. Other horse breeders called Snowman a “flea-bitten gray.”
But a wonderful, unbelievable thing happened that day.
Snowman won!
Horse of the Year
Harry continued to enter Snowman in other competitions, and Snowman continued to win.
Audiences cheered every time Snowman won an event. He became a symbol of how extraordinary an ordinary horse could be. He appeared on television. Stories and books were written about him.
As Snowman continued to win, one buyer offered $100,000 for the old plow horse, but Harry would not sell. In 1958 and 1959, Snowman was named “Horse of the Year.” Eventually, the gray gelding—who had once been marked for sale to a low bidder—was inducted into the show jumping Hall of Fame.”
Seasons of Growth
This story, as originally told by Rutherford George Mongomery in 1962, is a very practical example of what I saw that morning in my yard. Snowman had undoubtedly served someone well before being purchased by Harry de Leyer that snowy day in 1956. But he truly blossomed in his next season of life. Just like the flowers.
The same could also be said of us. We all have seasons of growth, seasons when we may be the center of attention (i.e., vividly blooming in our “yards”), and other seasons when we play more of a background role but are still an important part of the overall picture. But I think it may be bigger than that too. Perhaps instead of seeing our lives as a given flower in a yard, where we may compare ourselves to others, we need to see our lives as the entire yard where different parts of us bloom during different seasons. We need to recognize that and count it as a blessing.
Seasons of Life
That morning in my yard, after contemplating the growth patterns of my flowers, I snapped a few pictures and sent them to my daughter. She is currently serving as a missionary for our church in the Philippines. I told her that I would spare her a philosophical thread, but that I was grateful for this season of life where she could go and do what she was doing.
I appreciate you indulging me in the philosophical thread I would have shared with her. What blessings have you seen during the different seasons in your life? How will you make the most of your current season? We would love to read your answers in the comment section below. It may be worth remembering that while columbines bloomed in my yard in June, they also bloomed in the mountains a month later. The timing is not as important as the fact that they bloomed in both places and were beautiful. It’s also important to remember that the gardener plays a role in all of this, but we will talk about that in another blog post.
