I never thought much about flowers before I planned my wedding. So I didn’t find out until last year that hydrangeas are one of my favorites, specifically the blue and purple variety that graced our bridesmaids’ bouquets and reception tabletops. And when we moved into our new house six months ago, in the dead of winter, I had no idea of all the greenery that waited underground, waiting until spring to burst onto the scene. The dogwoods (though I called them cherry blossoms at the time…just look how far I’ve come!) showed up first, followed by knockout roses. Various blooms have popped up since, as I and my non-green thumb have witnessed in non-working wonder, marveling over these gifts attained not through effort but open eyes.

And a few weeks ago, I gazed toward the corner of the backyard, at the garden formerly tended by the teenage girl who lived here, behind the picket-fence gate, and considered googling hydrangea planting and care. They were popping up all over the neighborhood and wouldn’t I love to have some in our own little patch of property to stare at from the sunroom?

I’ll let you guess what I’m staring out right now from the sunroom.

Radiant blue and deep purple globes of blooms stare back, a year after they became my favorite flower, a year after so many hopes were fulfilled, so many promises kept.

All I’m saying is, sometimes? The things for which you were designed, the gifts you never knew you wanted? Are what you were always heading toward.