Lilac Therapy

Lilacs are considered a harbinger of spring. Ours came on more than a week ago and will suffer a freeze overnight after a day of wet snow that didn't stick around.

The boys went out to cover the rose buds, but the recently planted annuals will have to figure it out on their own. It's not a deep freeze, but is supposed to stick around for two nights in a row.

The cherry blossoms are mostly spent. We often get an Easter snow and it can be hit or miss whether we get much fruit eventually or not. Nature does what it will.

Blooms are such a good lesson in how to enjoy the fleeting moments in life. There could never be enough of them, and they never last long enough! I'm always torn between cutting stems for a vase or leaving them where they are for as long as they will last. Especially if there are only a few.

Little rituals are especially important now. Spreading out a pretty cloth. Using our favorite bits of china. 

I have selected a spot in the yard, just outside the door, for a table to spread things on. A meal, books, the computer. Nearby, along the stucco wall, is a newly planted garden spot (very small) to watch unfolding, and with a few small potted plants to admire. Flowers in pots make it so easy to refresh a little corner. Especially when you are not a real gardener!

On the lawn, under a tree, with a long view of green, I can hear all of the neighborhood birds and marvel at how quiet the world has become.

I never saw the old NY musical called Stop The World- I Want To Get Off, but I have certainly expressed the sentiment myself often enough. Who knew we would someday get a chance to do just that!? 

I know there are plenty of folks who desperately need to get on with things. But even with the hardships, I am finding that many of the people I talk to are settling in. Finding pleasure in the new routines. Waking up to the possibilities.

Nobody I know is bored. My son temporarily home from work says, "One day I putter in the yard, the next in the garage." And the new bonds formed or refreshed in families over these days may last for a lifetime.

I am reminded of a time in the 80's when our seven children were young. For a time we lived in a remote town in a small mobile home and there was absolutely no money. There was no phone, no internet, and no cable in those days of course, and the nearest neighbor a quarter mile away. During school days my daily bright spot was a drive to the post office about a mile away. 

The nearest "convenience" store was eight miles down the road. The grocery much farther still. There were few trips to the market, and lots of stocking up for a family of nine. Isolation was for a  completely different reason, yet feels so familar now. You learn what the conveniences in life really are.

And there are still plenty of trying times ahead. We're still preparing for the long haul. Bags and boxes of supplies are tucked everywhere like Badgers house in a page from The Wind in the Willows. (That just might be my wish to escape into youthful fantasy for awhile showing!) 

But these hard weeks to come could prove to be a blooming. Never meant to last forever, but perhaps the spring of something treasured as roses and lilacs. An interlude of loveliness amid the harshest of climates.

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Wishing you roses and lilacs,
 and many good days to come.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jacqueline