Munstead (English) Lavender

For the eleven years we've lived in this house, I've always had English lavender in our backyard. I loved to watch the bees feast on the beautiful flowering heads.
In 2021, we took out the planter boxes to make room for a larger garden. We transplanted my then-lavender to the new garden area, but just a few weeks later, Mom died. My lavender died, too. To come home from her house for the last time and not have the soothing, even mesmerizing pleasure of watching the bees in my lavender made the loss somewhat more devastating.
Last year, I planted two small lavender plants in the garden. This year, I have been healed, and the bees are back on my lavender. Continuity and meaning. Loss, grieving, and healing. Seasons come and seasons go. There is One Who is more faithful than the rising sun. And we are evergreen in believing that He holds everything in His hands.
A couple weeks ago, I unwrapped the tendrils of a lovely but strangling weed from around the stems of these plants. As I took the shoots in my hands, I was struck by how soft and delicate they were - very much like the fragility of a newborn child. I had never felt a plant so soft, especially the semi-woody, semi-herbaceous Munstead lavender. Today, however, they are strengthened, maturing, and standing tall. (Sounds like someone I know.) And the bees? They are joyful, too.