"With the rising of the Sun, let us seek to know God, whose coming is as sure as dawn, whose grace is like rain, renewing the face of the Earth." Hosea 6:3

I have been having a crazy-busy week. Everything I have been doing has been wonderful and enlivening. It has just been a whirlwind of meetings, gatherings of people which has kept me traveling at a certain pace. 

As I arrived home yesterday after being in this constant state of motion and as I drove my car into the driveway my eyes fell on a sweet, little yellow pansy that had somehow, not only survived winter but planted itself in an unlikely place at the edge of our garden. It had taken up the work of shining its yellow face into the world far away from where last year's pansies had been planted. How did it happen, I wondered? Pansies are not perennials but can make their way back in spring in some miraculous and mysterious way. after a year they will bloom not where they were planted, so to speak, but in a space far from their original home.

I don't know how it happened that this little, yellow, spring flower had traveled to where it did. I only know that in the frenzied nature of my week it was the catalyst that caused me to stop, to take a deep breath and remember that I am guest of this world. This sweet little flower was like the hostess of a really great party saying 'welcome' with petal-arms held wide, reminding me to take in all the beauty, the change, the gifts of this wonderful world. 

And so I did. I walked into the house and put aside the still unfinished to-do list and I put on my walking shoes and headed out into the waning hours of a beautiful day. As I walked along I saw so many signs of new life and color being added to a world that has been quickly emerging from its drab state. Crab apple trees are in their full splendor painting the landscape in pinks and reds. Phlox, purple and white, line sidewalks and rock gardens. Tulips are everywhere……red, yellow, white, purple, orange popping up from the places they have known as home in the frozen ground. I even saw, not only dwarf irises, but tall, deep purple irises blooming in a sunny spot along one house. I had probably ridden by many similar scenes during the day, scenes that had gone unnoticed traveling at my own version of warp speed.

And yet this stray, yellow pansy was what had been the catalyst that woke me up, that had reminded me that I am a guest of this world. Without its far-flung presence I might have walked into the house, opened my computer and continued chipping away at my to-do list, doing what I thought 'needed' to be done. Instead this little flower provided a much needed time out, not sitting in a chair until I learned to behave, but heading out into the world to be dazzled. It seems the Universe had other plans for me yesterday and I needed a wake up call.

For all those strays…..those planted in places that seem irregular, unplanned, misplaced….I give thanks. They just might be in that place for a reason beyond their knowing, waiting to give guidance to a pilgrim who has lost the way.