Gumption

Blame it on the heat...
I've been burned out.

Discouraged by the lack of anything beautiful to study.
Disappointed that, even when I steal a few minutes to enjoy the out of doors, it doesn't refresh me.
Concerned that I'm finding it hard to appreciate what I love the most--being out in nature.
And so desperately waiting for this awful dry spell to pass.

The chicory beside the path was open wide, greeting the morning sun. Standing tall, adding splashes of periwinkle to the brown field grasses around it. And I walked on, around the loop, hoping for something more beautiful. No birds, no butterflies--just crickets scurrying ahead of my steps through the short grass on the trails.
And as I was almost back to the house, I found what I was looking for. An ever-so-short chicory in the middle of the grass path. Poor thing--it's purpose in life never realized, literally cut short by a mower blade every time it put forth growth. Never growing tall like its neighbors to the side.
But, even as discouraged as that little plant must have been by the repeated mowings, it was in full bloom. Covered with more flowers than you'd think its small 2-inch size could support--giving everything it could muster to its purpose in life, before it is too late.
Simply a little weed...but the sight of it was beautiful.