Among The Weeds (Reads)

I have been watching a tulip grow in our front garden, for days. Not an unusual occurrence in spring, I hear you say. What is unusual is where it is growing. I spotted it first about a week ago. Small stemmed with one tight bud, alone, under a window, surrounded by weeds
. It is in a place I have never planted bulbs or seen a tulip appear before. It is fuchsia pink, with a fine streak of yellow and it bends slightly  in the breeze, but is  growing straight up towards the light.

I have appointed this tulip mine and shown it to Jacob each time we have got into or out of the car. We have marveled at its tenacity and daily  growth and its ability to have outwitted the squirrels and chipmunks who have allegedly eaten all the bulbs I have  planted intentionally over the years. Jacob has humored me and tried not to roll his eyes each time I have extolled the unlikely virtues of my adopted tulip.

All week, as well as delighting in my  new bloom, I have been searching my house for  a book a friend lent me a while ago called Hope Will Find You by Naomi Levy. I searched every single bookcase in our office, pulled apart the pile of novels by my bed, sorted through the mess of papers on my desk and looked in other rooms where it could have been hiding. I knew I’d seen it. Read it even. But it was illusive.  I even dreamed about the title because I was so focused on this book’s whereabouts. It had a story in it that another friend had mentioned and I needed to read it urgently.

 Yesterday I pulled out a pile of books from a bookshelf, which is just  above where I am sitting and typing now. I was sure I had checked there already, but there it was. Stuck behind Outwitting History and Jewish Spiritual Guidance – rather appropriate, I thought, since hope has so often been the backbone for survival and spiritual growth. I was thrilled to have it in my hands, to have solved the mystery and to be able to read it at last.

This morning as I came back from the carpool run, I stopped and looked at my tulip, its mouth opened up towards the sunshine, nestled in its unlikely home and thought, yes.......hope has found me..... in more ways than one.




* Please email me at gilly@bringingbooksofcomfort.org or leave a comment on this post below. I'd love to have your feedback. 



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