When I moved from Oregon to Washington a few years back, I brought a large pot of my beloved wild foxgloves. Some years they thrive, others less so. This year one stem curved and reached and bent itself to more than eight feet in height. It bloomed continuously all summer, sending out more and more smaller stems of luscious blooms, which delighted me as much as the Anna’s hummingbirds who visited often.

By early October though, all the blooms had dropped and the leaves browned and wilted. And yet, this hardy native plant continued to set new buds and believe in the delicate, fleeting warmth of autumn sunshine. You’d think some internal timer would halt the budding and focus all attention on seed formation.

Instead, the buds kept swelling and today—October 17—a new row of perfect mauve trumpets flared. Why am I so surprised?

This foxglove only has one mission in life—to bloom. To bloom as extravagantly and as prolifically as it possibly can. To plump each bud to its full purple potential, then push out more buds. Its imperative is to live fully and simply respond to the weather as it arrives each day.

Last year it never bloomed, but instead continued to grow and leaf out all winter. Because we never had a real freeze last year, it was able to gain a head start on this growing season. So last year’s lack of bloom was balanced by this year’s abundance.

glorious purple potential...click to enlarge

Even if the foxglove knew on some level that the buds it formed in early October had only a slim chance of blooming, it still had to try. It didn’t calculate the poor odds and decide to quit. It didn’t make only a half-hearted attempt to bloom again this year. My foxglove just does what it is meant to do—survive, thrive and be gloriously alive.

What more could I ask of myself?

CONTEMPLATIONS

• Do you have that much clarity about your mission in life?
• Are you living your full purple potential?
• Are there areas of your life where you might try harder to succeed?
• Have you given up too soon?
• How can you still bloom this autumn?

DOWNLOADABLE AFFIRMATION CARD

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OFFERING

Share some purple passion with these foxglove note cards from Cafe Press. (Click on the card to learn more.)

Smell some other wildflowers here.