This Flower Reminds Me of You

Every time I see this flower I have to think about my grandma

My grandma always talks about her favorite flower. She loves the tiny blue blossoms. They seem to be rare. Yet so special to her. And since my last visit at my grandma’s place, I seem to see them everywhere. And I think about her all the time. Every time I see one of them. One of these tiny flowers.

The Succory (Cichorium intybus)

The English name of this flower is “succory”. It’s a roadside plant that grows mainly in less vegetated areas. The German name of the flower “Wegwarte” means “waiting on the way”. And that is where I always find her. On my way to work. Next to the road.

It’s an unattractive and unimpressive flower. Very few people know the flower. The succory is a wildflower. It has blue blossoms that remind you of a Cornflower but the color is a bit paler.

If you want to see the blossoms you have to get out of your house early in the morning. They start to bloom with the first rays of sunshine and close the blossoms before 11 am. And that was it. The next day it will be another blossom that will bloom.

My grandma’s garden

Since my grandma loved these flowers so much she went one morning, a few years ago, and dug them out. She brought them home and planted them into her garden.

They grew immensely and spread like weeds. Because that’s what they are. Wildflowers. These plants are weeds. And now they got all the space in the world and all the attention they could ever dream of. Since my grandma just let them grow. And they did.

When I came back from Africa this year and went into quarantine at my grandma’s place I got to see them. The trees she raised. They weren’t little roadside flowers anymore. They were as tall as three meters. And were just about to start to bloom.

She wanted me to see them bloom. She obviously checked every day. And we spoke about them a lot. On one of our walks through the neighborhood, I saw a few small ones next to the road which just started to bloom.

It must have been a week after I left that my mom sent me this picture. The picture of my grandma in her garden. Next to the blooming succories. She’s been smiling and presenting proudly her favorite flowers.

Succory in my new home

Just about the same time, I started seeing them in my new home. Cycling every day to work I would see day after day more and more of these stunning flowers.

I don’t know if I simply never paid attention or if this is just the year of the succories. But there are millions out here! I would love to be able to show my grandma around.

The entire drive to work is accompanied by these little blue flowers covering the side of the road. And every morning when I see them I have to think about her. My grandma.

I think about how much she loves them. These tiny little flowers. How much she loves these inconspicuous plants. Blossoms that bloom for a few hours a day. Yet they make her so happy.

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul.” — Luther Burbank

Flowers for happiness

And guess what? Since these flowers make my grandma happy, they make me happy too. Knowing that my grandma is happy automatically makes me smile.

And here I am cycling to work smiling into the world like there’s nothing to be sad about. Simply because of a tiny little flower.

This is what life is about. Finding happiness in the small things in life. Appreciating the small joys in our daily life.

“Like wildflowers; You must allow yourself to grow in all the places people thought you never would.” — E.V.

Cattle in a bed of flowers

And then there is this one field. An empty field. No corn or maize or anything else is grown on it. The farmer just let it be a field of grass. And since nature is the most amazing artist in the world it created a field of flowers on it.

A field of my grandma’s favorite flowers.

The entire field is covered. I thought these flowers only grow as roadside plants. But I guess I was wrong. I’ve been driving past this field every day. And every morning it turned bluer and bluer.

This morning I had to stop and take pictures of it. The farmer let his cattle graze on this field. And now you see a herd of cattle in the middle of the sea of blue flowers.

It’s stunning.

It’s mesmerizing.

Just look at them grazing between these majestic flowers. Yes, I do think they are majestic. They aren’t some unknown weed growing on the side of the road. These are beautiful flowers.

I stopped for half an hour. Walking around the field taking loads and loads of photographs of this scene. Because who knows when they will be here again. The flowers and the cattle.

The lesson I learned

I didn’t just learn the name of a certain weed. I did learn to love a specific flower. A plant that blooms in its full strength across the fields of my new home.

I learned to smile one more time a day. For the entire drive to work. Since these flowers follow me. They guide me through the fight of getting kilometer for kilometer behind me.

Flowers teach us not to worry about the person next to us. Don’t look at them and compare yourself. It doesn’t matter if the person next to us has a different color, is taller or stronger. Flowers just bloom.

Just be yourself.

“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.” — Zen Shin