Bloom Where You Are Planted

By Robin G. Jordan

My daily walks take me past a field in which are growing soybeans. One day I noticed that Blue morning glory flowers (Ipomoea indica) were growing among the bean stalks. I recognized their three lobed leaves as well as their trumpet-shaped flowers. They also twine around the bean stalks. One flower I could barely see because the leaves of the bean plants largely hid it. The words of this song came to mind.

Written by Les Waguespack, “Bloom Where You Are Planted,” was adapted and popularized by Carey Landry. It appeared in Landry’s album by the same name. Landry was a Catholic priest who was ordained for the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana in 1971 but by 1980 was devoting himself to fulltime music ministry. He would be released from priestly ministry in 1985. He would marry Carol Klinghorn with whom he performed at Catholic youth conferences and made several albums. He is now the music director of a Catholic parish in Indianapolis, Indiana. He and his wife are also liturgical musicians at that parish.

The farmer will eventually harvest the soybeans and the Blue morning glory flowers if they have not faded before then will be gone. It may be several years before they bloom again in that field. Some years the farmer grows corn and some years he grows hay. That one flower was blooming where it had been planted.

Like the flowers in the field, our lives are short, compared to those of some living things. As the song urges us to do, we should bloom where we are planted, wherever we find ourselves. We may not find ourselves in the most desirable place but we should not let that deter us.

Bloom, bloom ,bloom,
where you're planted,
you will find your way.
Bloom, bloom, bloom
where you’re planted,
you will have your day.

1. Look at the flowers, look at them growing:
They never worry, they never work;
Yet look at the way our Father clothes them,
Each with a beauty all of its own.

Bloom, bloom, bloom,
where you're planted,
you will find your way.
Bloom, bloom, bloom
where you’re planted,
you will have your day.

2. Some plant the seeds that others will water,
But in all things God gives the growth,
come, let Him garden the flowers within you,
Come and discover some you've never known

Bloom, bloom, bloom,
where you're planted,
you will find your way.
Bloom, bloom, bloom
where you’re planted,
you will have your day.

3. Look at the love that lies deep within you
Let yourself be! Let yourself be!
Look at the gifts you have been given,
Let them go free! Let them go free!

Bloom, bloom, bloom,
where you're planted,
you will find your way.
Bloom, bloom, bloom
where you’re planted,
you will have your day,
you will have your day.