Most people think of seasons and think something like Fall or Spring. In South Louisiana a season may be football, baseball, crawfish… you get where I’m going here? There’s also an azalea season. Azaleas are very much a landscape staple in the South. To many, most of the year they are a somewhat nondescript shrub like plant.
But once a year, they transform. The flowers seem somewhat delicate, with colors that are bright and vibrant. Unless you’ve witnessed it yourself, you can’t quite get the scope of colors and depth. White, light pink, dark pink, fuchsia, red, tangerine… yes, you read that right, tangerine. Some are a mix of shades. The ones I’ve seen most often are a mix of white and pink. There are a multitude of reasons for the hybrid.
They say that azalea season is from March to late May but I’m not so sure that’s true. Early April is prime time, where as you make your way around town and through neighborhoods, there are these dots of vibrant flowers. Azaleas! Did I mention the nondescript shrub? Suddenly those shrubs you had never noticed before are simply bursting with color. A landscape that was once blah green is now a rainbow of varying hues.
Truthfully, the peak flowers seem to only last a couple of weeks here. That’s the time where the bushes are full to the brim with blooms. And they are all stunning and perfect. Too early and the bushes are still a bit sparse, not quite there yet. After a while, even though they are still blooming, you start to see the flowers that have simply run their course for this season and are beginning to wither.
A couple of years ago, I wanted azalea pictures. But I didn’t know there was such an art to the timing. And of course, I had to have time to go and find the places that had the biggest and best display. I went one week and got some amazing shots, marveling at the beauty, and almost overwhelmed at how many places there were to shoot. In fact, I got a few shots then realized the time of day was not great for traffic, so I planned to come back. The next week when I returned, the flowers I saw were so different. Many had areas that had withered. Many were literally smaller as the blooms were on the other side of their prime. The shots just weren’t the same. What a difference just a few days had made. |
The timing seemed to parallel my life. How often do we feel sort of non-descript. Going along and perhaps not even being noticed. Maybe in the background we are working on something. We are working on our moment where we will bloom our brightest. But then what? Does it last or are we like the azalea that blooms then withers quickly? If my beauty wasn’t on display all the time, did I go unnoticed?
It also made me think of all the times that I wondered if I had missed my chance. The window for the perfect bloom was so short with these azaleas… how often do we put pressure on ourselves to be the perfect person that we miss our chance all together?
What if we don’t miss our moment as often as we think?
What if life simply has many blooming seasons…
and we only notice the ones that look the way we expected?
Azaleas don’t get only one chance.
They return every year — shaped by weather, timing, and conditions beyond their control —yet still they bloom.
Maybe we are the same.
Maybe our lives are not a single window we must get right…
but a rhythm of becoming, revealing, resting, and becoming again.
Journal Prompts / Reflections
1. Feeling non-descript or unnoticed / the quiet growing season
Where in my life am I quietly growing or preparing, even if no one else can see it yet?
What parts of myself do I overlook simply because they are not currently “in bloom”?
2. Blooming brightly but temporarily / visibility and worth
When have I experienced a season where I felt fully alive, expressive, or seen? What allowed that blooming to happen?
How would my relationship with myself change if I believed my worth does not depend on always being at my brightest?
3. The short window of “perfect timing”
Where do I place pressure on myself to get the timing exactly right? What would soften if I allowed for imperfect timing?
How might life feel different if I trusted that growth and opportunity move in cycles rather than single chances?
4. Fear of missing my chance / perfection vs participation
What opportunities have I avoided because I was waiting to feel completely ready or “perfect”?
If blooming is something that can happen more than once, what would I be willing to try now?
