No Discouragement!

Gazania daisy in December; Norfolk Botanical Garden.  Copyright 2011: singeronthesand

See, the Lord your God has given you the land.

Go up and take possession of it as the Lord,

the God of your fathers, told you.

Do not be afraid!  Do not be discouraged!

Deuteronomy 1:21

I think it would be a fair assessment to say that I am a person who is easily discouraged.  I am often the shrinking violet, the defeatist, the “give up before I try” scaredy cat.  I am never that way in my professional life; it is in my personal life where I so easily give up without trying.

Last Saturday, I packed up my camera and drove to Norfolk to visit their botanical garden.  I am a member of the Ginter Botanical Garden here at home, and Norfolk has a reciprocity agreement with them for visits without charge.  An online map of the garden listed a Tropical House which I assumed would be similar to the gorgeous conservatory full of orchids at Ginter – a destination definitely worth the 2-hour trip.  Upon my arrival, I checked in at the Visitor’s Center, spent a few moments gathering information from the charming woman at the gift shop, then following her instructions, wandered off in the direction of the tropical house.  When I arrived at my destination, I halted in confusion, for there was no conservatory building to be found - only a fairly large but very old greenhouse structure.  A sign on the door assured me that this was, indeed, the Tropical House.  I eagerly stepped inside, and discovered… nothing.

There were no orchids, no bromeliads, no flowers at all, actually, just tangled tropical greenery.  The wind went out of my sails like a hissing balloon.  I drove all this way for this??  Perusing the map I picked up in the gift shop, I noticed that there was a Winter Garden and a Camellia Garden listed.  Shouldering my “boy, this was a waste of time” bad attitude, I started down the walkway, around a few corners, and straight into a gigantic camellia tree (this hardly qualified as a bush) towering over me in the sunlight.  Covered with the most beautiful white blooms delicately striped in scarlet, the sight immediately vanquished my grumblings.  A little further down the path, I found orange gazania daisies and golden daffodils blooming underneath a leafless tree.  Shrub roses were still in full bloom, pansies were prolific, and the landscape was dotted with dozens of photographic treasures.  I never did find the Winter Garden, but the large Camellia Garden made the drive to Norfolk seem insignificant indeed.

It is strangely comforting to discover that there were plenty of people like me populating the earth in biblical times, particularly the crowd that followed Moses out of Egypt on the way to the land of promise.  Complainers all, they grumbled their way across the desert sand until God finally said, “Enough already!  Stop being discouraged!  Just DO IT!”  Excellent words – for the people of antiquity, and for all of us in 2012.