Raindrop Drenched Peonies

A poem on the in between season, with raindrops and beauty.

I am in between,

raindrop-drenched peonies.

Quiet days,

remembering dreams,

interrupted by

joy-filled conversations,

saturated with hope.

An elegant flower

after the rain,

drenched in tears,

shy, hesitant,

still filled with fragrance.

I am a young girl’s heart,

in a survivor woman’s soul.

Formed by storms,

kept hopeful by beauty,

I am a raindrop peony.

Too imperfect for prestige,

too pretty to pick,

so just let me be,

and bloom,

while I wait

for sunshine,

to come.

Hey friends, I’m Bethany, your nature-adventuring, Jesus-following friend. Season after season, year after year, time in nature has been a gift of healing for me — for my nervous system and for my soul, and the way God speaks through creation.

Some of my most treasured words I’ve written, is a piece about peonies last year: “Planted, Blooming, Pruned, Transplanted.”

It’s an essay about my life-long love for peonies mixed with the heartbreaking moments of my marriage ending and some of my dreams, like the dried peony petals from my wedding bouquet, falling away.

I held the bowl in my hands, staring into the beauty for a few minutes, remembering the day I cradled them alive, remembering my grandmother’s peonies, and wondering what abyss lay ahead, what people would think. You don’t know how much lies can wither a soul. With a calmness that could only come from above, I overturned the bowl, watching my peony petals spill one by one into the trash can. God’s garden sheers felt heavy, as the dream of that day fell away; my heart pruned and pleading for providence to show me the way.

But that wasn’t the end.

There are still raindrops on peonies these days — nearly a decade now since this upturned preserved-peony-petal bowl day — AND there’s much transplanted blooming, too. God has seen my tears, held them, and watered the soil for new growth. He’s the God of the empty tomb, it’s what He does.

“But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.” - Hebrews 10:39

Enjoy these photos (by moi, the inspiration to my poem!)