I love plants, especially those with colorful flowers. My front porch overflows with potted bougainvilleas, mandivillas, and, for Christmas, poinsettias. Pots with various flowers surround my pool. And my rock garden pops with a variety of I don’t know what. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at keeping any of them alive. As a result, I’m always on the lookout for something new that might thrive in not only the Florida heat, but my lack of a green thumb. My latest discovery? A bush made up of dark purple, lavendar, and white flowers called Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. These three colors representing these three periods of time are what give it its name. Just as these three time periods make up who we are and shape life’s opportunities.
Dark Purple: Yesterday
Our lives are full of the experiences we have had. And those experiences saturate our beings, much like the saturated, deep purple of the flower. They define who we are; they help direct our decisions; they help determine what we want to do, where we want to go. Yesterday is the first step in identifying life’s opportunities. It’s drawing on the past to understand what opportunities may be available and when an opportunity just isn’t right for us.
Lavender: Today
The lavender flower represents today. Yesterday influences today, but no one knows what today holds. Our actions of today will always be colored by our knowledge of the past, but today gives us the opportunity to learn from our past and make changes as necessary. Today allows for change, to not do something as we always have or as we would have in the past. The changes we make in our lives and our actions of today open us up to accept life’s opportunities as they present themselves.
White: Tomorrow
Tomorrow is a blank slate. No one knows what the future holds, where our lives may turn. Tomorrow is filled with unlimited opportunities, none of which can be predicted, and hope. So much hope. And it is this hope that continues to open the door to life’s opportunities. That continues to make life exciting, even with all of the unknown.
Every step of life is precious – yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Embrace each step and make the most of them. Learn from yesterday, but don’t dwell on the past. Take action today, the action that is right for you. And put hope in tomorrow. Always have hope.
