Bloom! Reflections of a Roman Catholic Woman Priest

Bloom Where You Are Planted

I received this wonderful reminder in the mail and have been thinking about it. Sometimes we are planted-by life and circumstances or Providence. Sometimes we make choices and plant ourselves. Sometimes we are replanted and replanted-yet we survive and can bloom. We can choose to do and be all we can be wherever we are, or we can choose to shutdown and hide our blooming, hoping to bloom behind our walls or to be replanted again. This little reminder suggests that we “bloom with grace” wherever we are. That we make choices to bring beauty and grace to the worlds in which we find ourselves-and perhaps that we look for the beauty in everyone around us. I believe that grace is a gift from God to bring out the best in us and let it shine-no matter who is looking or not! And I believe that as we all bloom the world is a beautiful place of amazing diversity and surprising delightful life.

Mother and the Weeds

My Mother was a special person who could see beauty in everything and everyone. She dressed and she painted, mostly large oil paintings of flowers,with a bright artistic flair. When the residents of her Senior building in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York were invited to adopt a plot in a nearby lot and plant whatever they liked she was delighted. Some planted vegetables and fruits. Most planted beautiful flowers. My mother looked for and planted weeds. They were as beautiful as any flowers and she thought they needed a showcase. They were all around but unnoticed and unappreciated. She was criticized for this but, in her way, paid it no heed, she knew they were beautiful and that if people could get by what they thought they were, the name they were given-“weed” to what they really were-God given creations-they too could be loved and enjoyed. She never worried about conformity and above all people I knew- she truly bloomed where she was planted. She had to battle mental health and financial issues at a time when medications did little to help. And, I realized, often not soon enough, that her views of the world were a vision to be embraced and emulated. She always saw the good others overlooked. I always hope that I have learned this from her and that by God’s grace, I too can be myself and shine just as I am.

Above Mother is with me at my graduation from Junior High School. She was always at my side through all of my later advanced degree graduations and through thick and thin. Below we are in front of her Senior Building and she will show me her garden plot across the street.

Below is one of her paintings.

In the picture below one of Mom’s paintings is on the left and her picture, painted by my cousin Jack’s wife Arline McGarry on the right. Mother was beautiful and she created beauty wherever she was.

Below are a few so-called weeds on my front lawn. I very carefully make sure they can grow just where they are. In my life I have tried to do the same with the people in my life. Some of the most beautiful children I knew were the middle school kids at the Alternative Learning Center where I worked as a Counselor for a few years here in Fort Myers after a second retiring from my University “Professor of Social Work” Career. Serious behavioral and emotional problems had landed them there but one by one and in small groups they could truly grow and shine. I remember one fellow, Sonny, whose name I spelled Sunny with him to give him credit for the positive joy he could express frequently. Each one had a special shining that could be revealed with care and attention to both the pain and happy places in their lives.

I loved the practice aspects of my long Social Work career as much as the teaching of “how to do it” in my Academic career. And after leaving formal teaching and going into practice again and then Pastoral study and pastoral work I loved, and still love, the opportunity to get to know people in their strengths and struggles, hopes and fears, and to seek the grace of God for their blooming with them.

I hope that today you will join me in finding the beauty and goodness in life where you are even when it is not ideal. I hope that you will find it past the labels given and truly appreciate things and people for what and who they are despite and beyond their “labels”. I hope you will see the beauty in the so-called weeds. I hope that you will join me in blooming where you are planted!

Blessings,

Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP

Rev. Dr. Judith AB Lee, Good Shepherd Ministries, Fort Myers, Florida

8/15/2023