Last fall, my wife Marcia was planting flower bulbs of numerous varieties in hopes of getting some beautiful blooms during the following spring. Toward the end of her planting, she came across a gladiolus bulb at the bottom of her bulb box that looked like it had seen better days—it was all dried up and looked like it wanted to be put out of its misery. She considered throwing it out with the trash, but I suggested that we plant it anyway to see what would happen since we had plenty of space to do so. All fall long, we watered it, but nothing happened and quite frankly we eventually forgot all about that sickly-looking bulb. Then, about mid-March we noticed some green growth coming out of that bulb. It continued to grow and then buds began to appear. Eventually, it turned out to be the most beautiful gladiolus we had ever seen. The photo to the right is the actual flower. The lesson here is to never judge a living thing by its outward appearance because if you give it a little support and encouragement, its best days may be yet to come.

One Sentence Wisdom

• “It’s amazing what a little encouragement can do.” — Winnie Harlow
• “You have to get up and plant the seed and see if it grows, but you can’t just wait around, you have to water it and take care of it.” — Bootsy Collins

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