Where a Thistle Once Grew
Throughout much of the time since September 18, 2013 and now, I have discovered many hidden treasures and messages that I thought were too coincidental to be coincidences. And I have learned that there are no coincidences so I take things pretty literally. I had an epiphany a few nights ago while trying to sleep that had to do with two of those discoveries. Individually, they were both very powerful to me. But up until those sleepless hours that night, I had not related the two.
There is a flower that adorns many of the pages of this website and is used as the header logo on all of them. I have stated before that flower was drawn by Coleen while sitting at our kitchen table with our granddaughter, Samantha. They were coloring and talking and Coleen was doodling at the same time. That was perhaps the last time the two of them shared that activity as Coleen was already very sick and it took a lot of effort for her to even sit at a table. I discovered that flower along with her sketches of a tree and even one of me in a pile of papers laying in the kitchen before Coleen died. There was also a drawing of our house that Samantha did in beautiful colors. I didn’t know what to do with them all but I knew they were special, so I carefully put them aside and in a safe place so I could see them later.
When I started this website I wanted something unique to use for some of the graphics. Something that would say “Coleen” every time it was seen. I thought immediately of the flower she had drawn and scanned it into my computer and used it for the logo and other appropriate areas. I could never get the quality of it quite right, though. It wasn’t until I was asked to prepare an announcement flyer for a breast cancer function that I recruited help with making the flower more beautiful. I wanted to use the flower on the flyer, but it looked lousy. So I asked my Photoshop guru son, Patrick to help. He sent me back the flower in all its magnificence and it is on the flyer and I was able to update it on the website as well. It looks so much better and captures the true beauty of the moment when it was created.
That is the first part of my story. The second part is about a quotation I discovered shortly after Coleen died. It was written in her cursive hand on the back of a calender that contained 365 inspirational quotes. Apparently that wasn’t enough for her because she found one from Abe Lincoln that she thought should have been included and wrote it on the back cover. It was on her nightstand and although I don’t know how often she read it, I do know that she lived it every day of her life. It was almost her mission statement.
“Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”I am very proud of the flower and what it represents. It is almost an entire legacy unto itself as it speaks so clearly of Coleen. I also love the Lincoln quote and anyone who knew Coleen would attest that it fits her so well. Perfectly, in fact. And sometime that night, it dawned on me the significance of those two seemingly unrelated discoveries. I can sometimes be really slow to recognize things right before me. Things that seem very obvious to others come much more deliberately to me. I was lying awake thinking of that flower when the quote popped in my head. “Doesn’t that quote say something about planting a flower? Being planted where it might grow? And don’t I have a drawing Coleen did of a flower? And why can’t it be the same flower?”
It now is the same flower. It represents everything about her and is even more of a tribute than before. Last week after Patrick sent me the enhanced flower, I thought about having some pins made of it. People wear pins on their collars, hats, lapels or most anywhere for all sorts of causes or reasons. Maybe there is more to this message than it seems. Maybe if someone wearing a flower lapel pin was asked what it meant, they could answer it is a tribute to a woman who died too young from breast cancer and would want to help people stay alive longer than she did. They could say it is her way and our way of recognizing passion for life, love of family, and desire to help. It is the flower that was planted where a thistle once grew and has now become a symbol for healing and discovery. For all of us.
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