" 'Peony hugging,' I think to myself as I move from clump to clump. Each place I become more aware of the hard and heavy buds. Their weight has already begun to bend the stems toward the ground. In a few days the blossoms will open, and they will be huge. The whole plant will groan.
"I think of human blossoming and how much it, too, needs to be staked and supported. We need a circle of friends to hold us if we are going to open like peony buds and let out the beauty that is in us.
"How many of us have keeled over just in the time of blooming for lack of support and encouragement? How many of us have not dared to reveal our true selves because we fear being cut, we fear the dying afterward? How many of us say to life, 'This is a mistake. I can't do it. It takes more than I've got'?
"It does take everything we've got. I walk around the bed. It is a cradle. The plants reach my navel now. Some have only one bud. Some have two, and some have as many as six blossoms. Their peony natures have said 'yes' and have opened. The petals radiate out — white with pink — pink with white. I want to find the nature in me that will say 'yes' like this. And I want to support others in their blooming . . . to be a stake, a circle of twine, an encouragement, a witness."