I have kept my old planning calendars for years. A log of the mundane, ordinary and a reflection of a routine well established.  Each appointment logged, each swim and run measured and accounted for, work trips, vacations and birthdays are all there.  Life.  The pages and pencil notes are barely visible now, fading like my memory.  Days turn into months and the years hasten by. 

We measure life in years, but we live day to day.  Until cancer, when we live day to day and rejoice when blessed with more years to measure.

I returned to my calendars today.  I sensed it.  The date…July 13, 2017.  Two weeks after our sweet Mila arrived.  I had waited for her, my second grandchild, wanting to be fully present when she was born.  The calendar remembered too.  In faded scribble, “transplant” – and I take a deep breath.

I turn the page to a lovely graphic that has a quote from Emperor, Mulan, that reads, “the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.”

I sigh and wipe the tears from my eyes.  Had I seen this 7 years ago?  Did I consider the adversity I faced as an opportunity and a beginning of a beautiful garden?  I don’t think so.  But I do now. 

Adversity.  Beauty. 

The garden paints a picture of how adversity and beauty coexist.  It takes years to nurture and tend, to plant and weed and then rearrange.  We take chances with each new plant yet depend on the reliable. It takes prayer.

The beginning of “my beautiful garden” began as I prayed that Wednesday. Scribbled in the margins of my calendar, Joshua 1:9-10.  “Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  Adversity and Beauty. 

Today is an anniversary.  I celebrate it with a grateful heart, joy and courage.  This new journey has become the beautiful garden of my life, nurtured and cared for with love, family, friends and faith. Another year blooming in adversity.

Next to the mileage from my run this morning, in pencil I write. “7 years”.