Nature has a way to humble you.  And flowers even more.  It is one of the lessons I have learned once I decided to grow flowers... actually when I decided to garden in general.  You can have the best laid plans and nature will show you she is in charge.  It can be frustrating but it also shows deeply rewarding.  But the one thing nature has shown me is to learn to find beauty in the imperfect.  Take dahlias for example.  I love them yet they are an exercise in patience.  They epitomize the hashtag #slowflowers. 

This weekend the first dahlia (dahlia Chilson's Pride) bloomed yet in all its beauty the one thing I could focus on was how many of the petals were chewed by bugs.  I was actually pretty annoyed.  But the more I looked at it, the more I started seeing that even with the chewing, it is a pretty beautiful flower. 

As I started inspecting it, I noticed the most perfect shade of pink-- almost ethereal.  The beautiful veins that delicately showed in the petals.  Chilson's Pride has feathery petals but as it opened, the chewing makes it look more feathery to me.  And suddenly, in the blink of an eye, I was in love. 

But that is a great lesson to learn, isn't it? How in the imperfect we find beauty.  It is a lesson that applies to life in general.  As we go through life, sometimes everything seems so perfect and then suddenly it is not.  And we are anxious, sad or upset. It is so much so that we fail to see everything all the good things we have in our lives.  All the blessings.  All the beauty in the brokenness... 

And that is why I love nature and growing things.  It is always teaching us lessons about ourselves and the world.  It teaches us have patience and letting go of what frustrates us.  It is better than therapy.  And so I lovingly cut it and brought it inside-- the first dahlia bloom.  A new love for me.

Joining a few other lovers of gardening and images: Dishing It & Digging It, Garden Like Link-Up, Floral Friday Fotos, In a Vase on Monday, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day (15th of the Month), Gardens Galore, Floral Bliss, Home and Garden Thursday