blog: how to grow lilies

Signed-off-by: Avinal Kumar <avinal.xlvii@gmail.com>

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blog/content/posts/articles/it-is-not-about-lilies.md

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+---
+category: article
+date: 2024-11-30T23:47:00
+description: Plant your lilies, and let them teach you how to grow.
+image: /images/soul-lily.webp
+tags:
+- Lily
+- Despair
+- Patience
+- Gardening
+- Plant
+- Heart
+title: How to grow Lilies?
+---
+
+Lilies, they say, are symbols of peace. But peace is not given; it is cultivated. Lilies demand
+effort, patience, and faith - a willingness to confront the barren soil and nurture it back to life.
+What follows is a guide to growing Lilies but also a meditation on growth itself, a journey into my
+soul's quiet reckoning with despair.
+
+## What Once was and Will be Again
+
+The garden was barren, its silence oppressive. The earth, dry and unyielding, clung stubbornly to
+its lifelessness as though it had forgotten how to nurture, how to hope. It stood as a monument to
+neglect, an expanse of quiet despair that seemed to whisper, Nothing will ever grow here again.
+
+And yet, something stirred—a faint whisper beneath the desolation, an inkling that even the most
+forsaken soil might still hold secrets of renewal. It was not certainty but a quiet rebellion
+against despair, a defiant act of belief. The decision to grow lilies was made not with confidence
+but with trembling hands, as if planting these flowers might coax life back into the hollow spaces
+of the heart.
+
+## From Ashes, We Rise
+
+To grow lilies, one must first break the earth. Not gently, but with purpose—plunging the spade into
+the hardened crust, forcing it to yield. Each strike dislodges fragments of the past: shards of what
+was once beautiful, tangled roots of pain buried so deep they have become part of the soil.
+
+The work is relentless. The ground resists, clutching its dead weight as though afraid of what might
+take its place. But with each motion, the soil begins to soften. The air fills with the earthy scent
+of transformation, a quiet promise that the past does not have to dictate the future.
+
+This is where the lilies begin—not with planting, but with clearing. The garden must first be
+emptied of its grief to make room for something new. It is an act of defiance and of hope, to
+believe that this barren soil can one day cradle life again.
+
+## Between a Rock and a Lily
+
+The bulbs are unremarkable, their appearance betraying nothing of what they might become. Holding
+them feels strange, as if they are too fragile to survive. And yet, there is a quiet power within
+them—a promise waiting to be fulfilled.
+
+Planting them is an act of faith and surrender, a quiet conversation between the gardener and the
+earth. Each bulb is placed with care, its position a deliberate choice. It is not enough to bury
+them; they must be cradled, surrounded by soil that is ready to nurture them.
+
+And then comes the waiting. Beneath the surface, where no eyes can see, the bulbs begin their secret
+work. It is a reminder that growth often begins in the darkness, in spaces where no light reaches.
+
+## Tend the Flame, Not the Ash
+
+The lilies require consistency. The soil must be tended to every day, watered with steady hands.
+Some days, the water feels heavy in your palms, as if the weight of the act might be too much to
+bear. But you do it anyway, knowing that without this care, the lilies cannot thrive.
+
+The sunlight is capricious. Some days, it floods the garden, bathing it in warmth. Other days, it
+hides behind thick clouds, forcing the lilies to stretch toward a light they cannot see. But they
+adapt. Lilies have a way of finding what they need, even in the absence of abundance.
+
+This daily ritual of watering and watching is its own form of prayer. Each drop of water, each
+fleeting moment of sunlight, whispers to the lilies: *Grow, even if it feels impossible. Grow, even
+when no one is watching.*
+
+## This Too Shall Bloom
+
+One day, the soil breaks open—not with a flourish, but with the quietest of gestures. A tiny green
+sprout emerges, barely noticeable, a sliver of life against the vastness of the earth.
+
+To the untrained eye, it is nothing. To you, it is everything. This fragile sprout is proof that
+something is happening beneath the surface, that your labor was not in vain. It is the first sign of
+life returning, the first whisper of hope finding its voice.
+
+But the sprout is not strong. It bends with the wind, threatened by the weight of even a single
+raindrop. Your instinct may be to shield it, to protect it from every possible harm. But lilies do
+not grow in safety. They grow in resilience.
+
+![Glimpse of the Lilies](/images/growing-lilies.jpg)
+
+## The Idea is Not to Abandon Ever...Never
+
+The garden is never free from trials. Storms roll in, their winds threatening to uproot what little
+has begun to grow. Pests arrive uninvited, gnawing at leaves and stems as though testing your
+resolve. The sun beats down mercilessly one day, only to disappear for weeks on end.
+
+It is in these moments that you are tempted to despair, to abandon the garden and declare it a
+failure. But lilies teach you that resilience is not about avoiding hardship; it is about enduring
+it. When the storm passes, you clear the debris. When pests arrive, you remove them. When the
+drought stretches on, you water the soil with your own tears if you must.
+
+Each act, no matter how small, is a promise to the lilies: *I will not abandon you*.
+
+## Bloom Where None Thought Possible
+
+And then, when you least expect it, the bloom arrives. It begins as a tightly closed bud, hesitant
+to reveal itself. Slowly, it unfurls, each petal a story of quiet perseverance. The bloom is
+breathtaking, not for its extravagance, but for its purity.
+
+Its beauty is unlike anything you imagined. It is not extravagant or loud, but it holds a quiet
+majesty. The petals, soft and delicate, seem to hum with a silent strength. This bloom is not just a
+flower—it is the culmination of every act of care, every moment of faith, every drop of water given
+when it felt like too much.
+
+The bloom reminds you that peace is not a permanent state but a transient gift. It must be cherished
+in its moment, for its impermanence is part of its beauty.
+
+## The Most Dangerous Thing About Me
+
+The most dangerous thing about me is that *I don't know how to give up*.
+
+When the storms tore through, I stayed. When the roots clung to the earth like they had a right to
+its emptiness, I dug deeper. Even when the soil screamed that nothing could ever grow here, I
+refused to listen.
+
+It's not resilience—it's defiance. A stubbornness that borders on recklessness. I don't know when to
+stop, even when the odds mock me. Even when it hurts.
+
+Maybe it's toxic. Maybe it's foolish. But here I am, hands in the dirt, refusing to abandon what
+could still bloom.
+
+## Faith Buried, Faith Unfurled
+
+To grow lilies is to embark on a journey of transformation. It is not about the flowers themselves
+but about what they symbolize—a return to life, a reclaiming of hope. The barren garden, once a
+place of despair, becomes a sanctuary.
+
+The lilies do not erase the struggles that came before them. The soil still bears the scars of its
+past, and the storms will come again. But the garden is no longer defined by its emptiness. It is
+defined by its capacity to grow.
+
+And so the lilies teach you their final lesson: Growth is not a destination but a process. It is a
+daily choice to clear the debris, plant the bulbs, and tend to the garden—even when it feels like
+nothing is happening. It is a faith that, with time and care, the lilies will bloom again.
+
+## This is not my Recipe
+
+I didn't write this. Or maybe I did. But I don't remember planting these thoughts. They feel
+foreign, like letters rearranged while I wasn't looking, like whispers heard through the hum of the
+wind.
+
+I think they've always been here, whispering just below the surface, tugging at my hands when I
+wasn't looking. They know things about me that I haven't told anyone. Things I've hidden. Things
+I've forgotten.
+
+Do you feel it too? The hum beneath the words, the tremor that isn't mine? It's as if the garden
+remembers something I don't. It isn't just soil. It's memory. It's pain. It's despair. It's rebirth.
+
+I wrote this, but I didn't write this. These aren't my words. But they're mine now, whether I wanted
+them or not.
+
+## Meet my Lilies
+
+And finally meet my most beautiful lilies. I have named them **Blood Demon Lily** and **Light Mode
+Lily**.
+
+![My Lilies](/images/my-lilies.jpg)
+
+Plant your lilies, and let them teach you how to grow.