Recognising what we have

If you read my previous blog entry, you may remember that it featured a plant with bright yellow flowers.  At the time I wrote the blog entry, I didn't know the name of the plant, but consulting with a friend who is knowledgeable in these things has led me to the discovery that it is the broom.  It was while we were holidaying in Scotland that we came to an area with a number of broom plants.  In the sunshine, the yellow flowers seemed to shine particularly brightly.

Of course, holidays eventually come to an end, and we headed for home.  We perhaps could have done with a slightly longer holiday, but the time we spent away did us good and we were able to recharge the batteries somewhat.  The weather while we'd been away had been better than forecast, though not brilliant for late May.  As is often the case, it improved considerably once I got back to work!  

At the end of our first week back, our son and his wife and young son came to stay overnight.  Our daughter and her husband, who live locally, also came round, and as the sun was shining we decided to have our first barbecue of the year.  It was a good job that my son-in-law was with us, because I've never been very good with barbecues!

We were sitting in the garden waiting for the food to cook when I noticed (how had I missed it?) that we have a large broom plant in our own garden!  I must have seen it lots of times, but for some reason it had never clicked that this was the same plant which we had so admired on our Scottish holiday!

I got to thinking about how there may be times when we don't appreciate what we have as much as we should; maybe we taken these things for granted.  Whereas I had been really attracted by the yellow broom plant in Scotland, I had hardly noticed the one which was just as beautiful in my own back garden. The old saying about the grass always appearing greener in the other field has a ring of truth about it; for some reason we can so easily be attracted by what we don't have, and ignore what we do have.  It's certainly reminded me of the importance of valuing what I already have, and trying not to take these things (or people) for granted!