“It is never too late to be who you might have been” – George Eliott As I walked around our garden today, I paused by the Hydrangea. It sits at one side of the garden, near the gate from the road, so greeting visitors.
Right now is the height of summer and the Hydrangea is giving it’s all.
Throwing everything into flowering.
Pretty much every bloom is showing. The least I can do is stop and enjoy it for a moment.
Our Hydrangea, unlike most, has for years almost exclusively produced pink blooms. So it is with some interest that I notice a beautiful blue head of flowers, right in the middle of the shrub.
This strikes me as so different, so unusual, that I have to take a picture.
As I look at the plant (really, I’m only looking at the blue flower, but don’t tell the others) I consider the parallels with life.
Many, even most people try hard to fit in, not wanting to seem odd, different, or unusual.
Being different can be hard.
But abnormality is often worth it, for many reasons.
Difference is the way we describe the world.
Imagine that you see a clean, white sheet of A4 paper. On that paper is one small solitary dot. The dot is the difference on that sheet of otherwise immaculate white.
Now imagine you have to direct me to select a piece of paper from a group. You will likely say “pick that one, with the spot” or maybe “not the one with the mark on it”. Either way, you have used the difference to describe the world. It would be very unlikely that you would say “Pick the sheet of paper with ever so slightly less white”
Difference is how we evolved.
If it weren’t for genetic mutation (differences within the genome), evolution would not be possible. If every strand of DNA were to replicate itself perfectly, then no new species could have developed, natural selection could not have made choices about more or less suitability for our environment. We could not exist!
Difference prevents boredom.
My last argument for difference is a simple one. Who would want to exist in a world where nothing ever changed? Everything the same. That would be the most tiresome, repetitive, tedious struggle I can imagine.
Difference does mean that sometimes we have to accept the bad with the good. Everything in life has a down side, but this one is really worth it.
This choice can make you free.
If you choose to be different, suddenly you can choose to be whatever you want, to start building the person you would really like to become. It will take work. You will make mistakes, but being different will get you to a new you.
Enjoy the difference you see around you, try to be part of it. Revel in the unusual. Take in the strange. Learn.
Don’t be the person that someone else suggests.
Be different.
Make the change. Be the blue flower on the Hydrangea.
Live your way.
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