A Yard Can Save Your Life

Green thumbs are in my family tree.

But I am a late bloomer.

I started planting flowers not only for their beauty, but for survival. They gave me a reason to carry on during some difficult times.

Circumstances landed me in a public housing apartment several years ago. I had to battle not only physical pain, but the mind. That’s when I headed to Lowe’s to browse in the garden center.

I read a bunch of seed packets and finally chose sunflowers. They didn’t require much, so I figured I’d give it a try.

Day after day I arose to work in my yard. No gun shots or person in my neighborhood was gonna stop me. I decided it would be okay if I exited this world while digging my fingers in the soil. While beautifying my home. While partnering with nature.

The sunflowers reached the roof around my apartment. I, a garden newbie, was amazed. Sometimes I’d sit in my car in the parking lot and just stare at the fortress of flowers.

Fr. Thomas Dubay thought so much of the power of beauty, he wrote a book about it.

The Evidential Power of Beauty explores humanity’s thirst for endless beauty.

Dubay quotes Richard Feynman, a physicist and Nobel prize winner, as saying you can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity.

A simple sunflower starts conversations with folks who’d never speak otherwise. A simple sunflower briefly captures the attention of a child walking by the yard. Simple sunflowers cheered me and rescued me.

They indeed possess a power of their own.

Amen.