I was wandering through the desert,
For what seemed like many days,
I felt so lost and hopeless,
My life felt like a haze.

The heat kept beating down on me,
I felt oppressed and lost,
I struggled to find my very breath,
Each one, I drew, at cost…

I looked towards the horizon,
To find a safer place,
And all I felt, were burning rays,
That scorched my very face.

I lifted up my hand to see,
To shield my weary eyes,
And that is when I saw it there…
It caught me by surprise.

I came upon a flower,
I didn’t expect to find…
It never should have been right there,
In a place that wasn’t kind…

I stared at it in wonderment,
Lost… in how it could be…
Yet glad, I somehow found it there,
As if God had sent it to me.

I approached it somewhat cautiously,
Afraid I’d do it harm,
Yet in amidst that awful place,
I had no cause for alarm…

It rose above, the crackled ground,
Defying all of Nature’s rules,
As if it somehow knew a secret,
To survive, in a place that cruel.

And I felt a tear, drop across my cheek,
As I took that beauty in,
And felt, that perhaps it was a sign,
Of good things, meant to begin.

For even in our harshest days,
When the light may blind our eyes,
We know there will be stars at night,
And the cooler desert skies…

And perhaps if this, flower can live,
And life can always find a way,
Then maybe there is cause for hope,
To find a better day.

So I reached into my backpack,
And gave it the water I had,
Cause if that flower, couldn’t make it there,
I truly would be sad…

For it takes some courage, to put down roots,
Where others would dare not go,
But that’s where life can be divine,
In ways we’d never know.

So I said a prayer, to offer thanks,
For the Hand that led me there,
And I said goodbye to my desert flower,
And with it, my despair…

For the moments we unexpectedly encounter beauty in life… and the hope we’re present enough in the moment to experience it fully…

-CJG 07/06/2017