In the summer of 2001, Christine Hall traveled back to her roots in Conewango Valley, Penn.
The experiences she had there eventually blossomed into a powerful book on nurturing called "Conversations with a Moonflower" (Bonneville Books/Cedar Fort, $12.99)
That year, Hall's father died, and the family had come to clean out the house in preparation of selling it.
The house, which had been in her family since 1840, was surrounded by an Amish community, "and it was so appropriate that we now sold it to our Amish neighbors," she says. "It was a joyous but heart-tugging, time."
One day as they were working on the house, an Amish woman came to invite her and her sister to see a blooming moonflower that night. It was Hall's first introduction to the plant, which blooms only at night. Each flower pops out in time-lapse-photography style, blooms through the night and dies as the sun comes up.
"About 40 blossoms opened that night," Hall says. "I was so caught off guard to see something so magnificent."
Her Amish neighbor noticed that effect. "She told me to come back the next day, and she would give me a plant to take home."
Hall took it home and planted it, and wonderful things began to happen. During blooming season, family and friends began to gather nightly to watch the show. But more than that, Hall, who would often linger on, began to find a peace and inspiration that touched her soul. It was almost as if the flower was talking to her, she says, teaching her lessons about herself and about life.
Throughout her life, Hall has struggled with Attention Deficit Disorder and a mind that jumped from idea to idea in creative bursts that were often frustrating.
"I was always on the move," she says. "I always had an abundance of projects going."
But it was different with the moonflower, she says. "I sat there quietly, and the impressions came clearly. Some of the most profound moments of insight that I've ever had came as I sat with the moonflower."
Hall began writing some of them down, with no thought of ever writing a book. "That was nothing I ever thought I would do. But it just wouldn't leave me alone."
With advice and counsel from her next-door neighbor, who is a professional writer and editor, Hall eventually put together a manuscript. The book comes with directions on growing moonflowers. Each page also has an image that if flipped rapidly, a moonflower will bloom. And you can experience with Hall the idea that "life's most profound lessons are often learned from the most unexpected sources."
What has been so interesting, she says, is "how different parts of the book speak to different people, depending on the needs they have. They are universal messages."
Among the things Hall has learned from her moonflower: bloom when you are ready, be just who you are, celebrate difference. And above all, this: "I've learned to sit quietly and ask questions; to wait patiently, knowing the answers will come. The answers are inside of you. They were planted in your soul. And they will come if you let them."
Email: carma@desnews.com