I love spring!

Can you tell I love spring? I’m not sure if it’s because I was born in this season, or I just love the simple beauty of flowers. Whatever the reason, it is my favorite season. Two years ago, we strolled through the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens in Woodland, Washington. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, it is worth the stop in the small town right next to the Columbia River, twenty miles north of Portland, off of I-5. I can’t tell you how many varieties of lilacs there are that the German immigrant propagated, but there are many. I always wanted to have one of “her” lilacs and on that day, two years ago, Jim told me to pick one to plant in our yard. I chose an amethyst colored one. It was hard to choose for I love all of them: white, lavender, deep purple, and amethyst.

This year, it bloomed!

Later that day, we planted the slender stick that said it was a lilac. Last year, the sticks produced heart shaped leaves and no blossoms, but this year this is what it produced!

Her life wasn’t easy…

Jane Kirkpatrick is one of my go-to authors. Her historical novels draw me to the characters she so vividly describes. Hulda Klager was one of them. She worked hard developing different plants, the lilac her most famous, though she even developed an easy-peeling apple for pies. Her life wasn’t easy more than one-hundred years ago and the book tells her story. She battled floods and experienced family tragedies.

Hulda said more than one-hundred years ago:

Beauty matters….it does. God gave us flowers for a reason. Flowers remind us to put away fear, to stop our rushing and running and worrying about this and that, and for a moment, have a piece of paradise right here on earth.

Hulda is so right. Right back there where the goose decoys guard the back corner of our yard, sits a progeny of Hulda’s. My little piece of paradise right in my own backyard!

I couldn’t resist snapping this promise of these swollen buds outside my office window. Next week they should be in full bloom!

Beauty matters…

Whatever state you are in today, whether you are hopeful for some promise to come, waiting for cancer to leave your body, your prince charming to arrive on a white horse, or perhaps, you just would like to enjoy a peaceful, pain-free day, take a moment and have a “piece of paradise, right here on earth” as Hulda said. Put away fear and even for a moment, enjoy a piece of paradise. “Beauty matters,” she said. I believe our Creator knew that too. And why we have so many flowers. The lilac blooms!