Eating Pheasant Berry

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A green shoot popped up in my six-inch tall planter three years ago, and I never got around to pulling it. I favored the other plants I'd tucked in there. Each year, this shoot died back in fall then returned, growing a little taller in spring. I kept thinking I recognized it ... almost.

One day, it thrust before me a string of tiny white blossoms. Pristine! And today—wonder of wonders—small dark purple berries appeared, and I finally knew the plant. It's the Pheasant Berry, a.k.a. Himalayan Honeysuckle. Most honeysuckle is not edible, but this beauty is indeed. Its berries taste like liquid toffee to me, though it's heralded to be a "chocolate berry."

What I find most fabulous about this discovery is that the plant is one I placed in a different part of my garden years ago. I honestly can't remember what happened to it. The garden, like my life, has come to be after countless twists and turns. The logic sometimes escapes me as to why plants came or left.

And then one day, there's a surprise. A long lost friend comes to visit. And much like Odysseus who returned home in rags, unrecognizable, this lime green sprite stood before me unknown for years.

It makes me wonder who I overlook, which marvels I mistake for "weeds" on a daily basis. Weed or cherished friend is determined only by our perspective in the moment anyway.

Which wonders did you discover after having overlooked them for ages?