“Patience is also a form of action.”          — Auguste Rodin (attr.)

When I first had a patch of dirt of my own, I excitedly ordered a garden’s worth of peony plants.  Visions of puffy pinkness filled my head.  Several weeks later, a shoebox appeared at my doorstep.  I opened it to find a collection of tiny tubers, the size of new potatoes.  These were my peonies?!?  Discouraged, I squashed them into the ground with little care.

Year 1, some wimpy leaves shot up.  I planted some quick-sprinting sunflowers as a distraction.

Year 3, a few small blooms on stubby little stems.  I sighed, and weeded, and sighed some more.

Year 10, at long last I’m surrounded by huge peony poofs as big as my head.  They are ridiculous, and glorious.

Peonies live for over 50 years, so the ROI on that little shoebox is tremendous….but it took a little while to get going.

Whatever wonderful things are growing in slow motion for you, keep the faith. So long as they are rooting deeply, great things are sure to come. Eventually.

Here’s to patience, and to peonies.