Growing Meaning

In the vein of "Wedded Wednesdays", I had to share this most creative memento from my sister-in-law, Mary Austin, who is getting married this Summer.  She asked her bridesmaids to be in the wedding by sending them this lovely little gift along with a touching note, which made me tear up, of course.

The symbolic gift inside the box was a pair of sparkly studs for us to wear in the wedding, with a sprig of lavender tied up on top--lavender for devotion.

The idea of lavender meaning devotion struck me as so incredible because we recently planted lavender in our front yard.  Now, despite having pretty incredible BLACK thumbs, the lavender has not died yet!  I guess it's because James has been very "devoted" to watering it.

Beautiful accident that it was, alongside the lavender (for devotion) we have rosemary.  When I was still in the hospital, a sorority sister of mine sent me a small packet of rosemary seeds, with the inscription from Shakespeare's Hamlet

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"There's rosemary; that's for remembrance. Pray, love, remember."

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All this time, our little home--full of remembrances of the good and the bad, and bound by the love and devotion of a husband to his wife and son--was rather unwittingly decorated at its threshold with the very symbols of the sentiments that lie within.  Isn't it beautiful how that works?  So many times we search for that meaning, when all we really need to do is look right outside our own front door to see what is growing.