Where the Light Found Me

I planted a Double Shine Dahlia bulb in my side yard, not knowing how much it would come to mean. Its first bloom opened just after my bilateral mastectomy, at a time when my body and spirit felt unfamiliar and fragile. It is hard to see yourself as beautiful after such a profound change. The mind can wander into dark and lonely places.
But that single bloom — warm, bright, and impossibly alive — met me in that darkness. It gave me a moment of joy, a spark of hope, and a reminder that beauty can return in new forms. I am deeply grateful for the light that flower offered me when I needed it most.
This colored pencil study highlights the dahlia’s layered petals and luminous color, capturing the way light gathers at its center and spills outward. The soft background — the siding of my home with tree shadows drifting across it — grounds the bloom in the real moment it came from, echoing the hope and calm it once offered me.