Here’s something I would have never said before becoming a country girl!!
It’s Giant Puffball Mushroom Season!!!!
I’ll never forget the fall day many years ago when Denny returned from a walk in the woods with several gigantic puffball mushrooms. After my initial shock, I immediately thought there was no way they were edible. And I nearly refused to try them. No matter that they smelled so good as he was cooking them.
The giant puffball is a unique, gigantic wild mushroom noted for its impressive size. I mean, you can’t miss them! Unlike typical cap-and-stem mushrooms that often attach themselves to tree trunks, giant puffballs grow as a smooth, solid, skin-covered globes that sit directly on the ground.
While most standard mushrooms forcibly shoot out their spores using a fancy microscopic biological mechanism, giant puffballs need an external trigger or force to release theirs. This could be rainfall or being stepped on by an animal or human.
As they mature they become very fragile. When pressure is applied to its surface, the spores are released in a smokey looking poof. Because the spores are extremely lightweight, the wind scatters them over massive distances, allowing them to colonize new fields and woodland areas.
The giant puffball reminds us that when we experience what feels like a crushing blow, (like a serious health issue, the loss of a job, or a devastating betrayal), sometimes it can actually be the trigger needed to unlock our hidden potential or a new path for growth.
It’s a poignant less that resilience doesn't always mean fiercely fighting back with our own strength. Sometimes, it means being light enough to let go.
When we are lightweight—free of bitterness, open to change, and willing to ride the currents of the wind; life can carry our story, our undiscovered talents, or the impact of our true calling to distant places we never could have reached on our own.
