Quiet Miracles

Too often nature’s miraculous behavior exceeds my limited ability to convey such miracles, whether through words or images.

For instance, this unassuming flower, shown larger than life, begins as a simple stalk, with a very simple leaf gradually jutting out from the end of each stalk. When the leaf reaches a certain length, however, multiple clusters of dark purple pods begin to emerge from the juncture of the leaf and stem, much like an ear of Indian corn.

Amazingly, those purple pods turn to small but beautiful flowers throughout the rest of the summer.

Perhaps time-lapse photography could better reveal this miraculous transformation from plain stalk to flower, but I find simple images like this incapable of conveying the plant’s uniqueness, much as a photographic images too often seem unable to reveal the unique beauty of the people we love most.

6 thoughts on “Quiet Miracles”

  1. Oh, can the humility! Most people who like such things know how the miracle works, have seen flowers change and bloom. What you do is a great job of reminding people of it when some of us on some days might not remember to look around us or even stick our heads out the window! I always assume that you put a good deal of effort into your photos since the results are so good most of the time. Jesus wants you to be humble, they say, but I’m easier than that.

  2. See, Ron, just like everybody else you assume these flowers are beautiful like all flowers are beautiful.

    No, the flowers themselves are not nearly as spectacular as many of the other flowers in our garden.

    What makes them remarkable is that they start out so plain and then suddenly, unexpectedly become beautiful, in an ugly duckling kind of way.

  3. I’d love to see these little gems emerge. How big is the actual blossom on the right? Looks orchid-like and orchid buds never fail to amaze me appearing suddenly as they do on their “dead” stems. Does this quiet miracle have another name?

  4. It must have a name but we don’t have it. The garden was there when we moved in and the former owner apparently loved “exotic,” unusual plants.

    Each blossom is actually quite small, probably about the size of your thumbnail.

  5. I can’t get any more enlightened than I can get, whether it’s my own individual fault or a common foible. I try not to imagine what you’ve left out, as I do not want my brain to burst. Carry on.

  6. they say a picture is worth a thousand words but sometimes it takes a few choice words to complete the picture

    images, words– it all takes place in the mind, or as Ron says, it bursts in the brain

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