Fall Cleanout -- Finding Hidden Beauties

The cold raining weather of fall is a signal it is time to clean out the garden and flower beds. The cleanout is sometimes hard on my soul as I pull out blooming annual flowers and cut back perennials.

I sigh as I harvest the last of the potatoes, onions, and vegetables knowing the next few months won’t be as colorful or flavorful. 

​But I know that cutting back the perennial flowers will make them stronger next spring and that clearing the vegetable garden will make it ready for planting next season. The cleaning is not always pretty, beautiful blooming flowers are cut back and their woody stems and yellowing leaves exposed. 

​But this year I discovered a hidden beauty. As I cut back the zinnias that had seen better days and the salvia and rudebeckia at the end of their blooms . . .

​I found a treasurer hidden deep among the yellowing leaves and spent blooms -- a tender pink blooming geranium.

​I did not plant any geraniums this year. This little treasure had grown from dropped seeds or roots left from previous years. As I looked at the beautiful pink flower I thought of the past treasurers in my life that may now be hidden by new blooms. As a teenager and young adult, I would sit at the piano, try new songs, and sing each day. Now I sit down at the piano for only a few minutes each week. In the past I spent more times with friends and I undertook other creative endeavors such as sewing and home arts. My past life blooms are still there, they are just hidden and placed in the shadows of bigger and newer, but not necessarily more beautiful blooms. We all have past treasurers and blooms that can be uncovered and nourished. Maybe it is a forgotten musical instrument, a love of painting, time spent with friends, date night with spouses, visiting and laughter with family, playing a sport, gardening, volunteering, participating in community events, or any other beautiful activity. My life has beautiful blooms of other types now, but my life could be richer if I uncovered and nourished a few of those past blooming treasurers.