The Rebirth of Plucky Tulip

One night at the hostel for lost souls finally made me realise that I have everything I need and more. The night was long and by the time I left the hostel, it was 7 years later where I had come from. I met interesting people there, and some of us did a lot of work in the art therapy room.

Every year I am born and I die, and I celebrate my first birthday in silent gratitude as I fade and store my energy and wait for renewal. I have been replanted several times, and I have been taken out of the soil to overwinter. Gentle hands held me and transported me to my next home. I was usually planted with many others like me. We are all Lucky Tulips - lucky to be, to grow, to breathe and soak up the rain and the sun. We've all given ourselves names so that we can tell ourselves apart. I've decided to call myself Plucky as it makes me feel as if I have more agency, as if I am not just a product of a stroke of luck. But fundamentally, the only thing I am in charge of, is my feelings. To not be scared as I wilt away and trust that I will be reborn and a new year will come and the sun will shine on me again.

Before I was a tulip, I had many lives. Once I was a turnip. That time my father was a lion, my mother was a wolf and my sister was a swan. There are many interesting facts about turnips and they are very nutritious. My mother and father taught me a lot of what I needed, and God gave me most of the rest. But I felt like I was a sorry mistake and in my next life I decided to be a hedgehog. During the course of that life I became delusional for the first time and I thought I was a superhero and that I could fly. But that's another story, we'll probably get to that at some point. I am glad I am back in the ground now - it's where I belong and where I need to be. Not running away nor running towards, just staying put as the worlds change around me. I like to look after my place in the great soil, and it looks after me. I am nowhere near great, in fact I am quite small, but I am still able to bring a smile to somebody's face and soak in the goodness of the sun and the rain. And now, as a tulip, I am my own mother and father, which, if I may say so, is quite a Plucky thing to be.

I don't believe in a single God, as one supreme being. But I do believe in all of us. There is something that binds us all together, something much bigger than us and it is there even though we cannot see it and we don't have any instruments to measure it. Some very smart folk (I've been very fortunate to know a few) don't believe in it as it's not been scientifically proven. To that I say - gravity existed before it was proven and long before we had a name for it.

I digress. If you are reading this you have probably come to the website. Thank you very much for coming and for witnessing the fruits, leaves, branches or blooms of this year's growth. Some of us are big trees, some of us are green shoots, some of us are about to be plucked, dug up and replanted again. I am grateful for connecting with you and I hope that you enjoy what you see.