Hope and Flowers

This is an annul thing for me now, but where I live in Connecticut, spring flowers are finally in bloom, and that means the daffodils I planted in my back yard are coming up:

This is a special flower, and I've written about it before, in a piece on The Mighty called "Finding Hope Among the Thorns of Cancer."

If you look closely at the picture, you can see that the daffodil is surrounded by thorny blackberry canes. I planted the daffodils many years ago, when that section of my yard was in shade for most of the year. Except for the spring, before the trees were covered with leaves -- then spring flowers like daffodils would bloom, when they still had some sun.

And then my neighbors had to cut down some of those trees, and suddenly that part of the yard got a lot more sun. Before I had a chance to plant something else, some wild blackberries started to grow there, probably because a squirrel buried some blackberries there. they are wild blackberries, so the canes are covered with thorns.

Now, every summer, we pick blackberries and make jam (or we share the berries with birds and hope we get some next year). But every spring, we wait for that daffodil to grow up among the blackberries.

It's a reminder that beautiful things can happen even in the worst circumstances. There can be good things happening in life even when we live with the thorns of cancer.  

That's hard to remember sometimes.

Being a native of New England, I have always loved autumn. I like the cooler air, and bright colors of the changing leaves. I can smell fall in the air when it starts to come around.

But as I get older, I've come to love spring even more. So much new life. So many reminders that there are new beginnings all around us.

Last fall, my wife and removed a section of our front lawn and planted a pollinator garden. (You might remember that my middle child is a wildlife biologist who has had a love of nature since he was a baby.) Our neighbors weren't necessarily happy with us -- they would prefer a that everyone had a perfect green lawn in front of their house.

But with our son's help, we found some native plants that will attract butterflies and bees and a few birds. It will be in full bloom probably around July. So we added a few spring bulbs so we could have some color a little earlier. Those bulbs are starting to show their colors now.

And the summer flowers are peeking through the soil and mulch.

And the flowering cherry tree in front of our house is just now popping open.

I hope the message for all of this is obvious.

Even without the drama of the thorns, it's nice to be able to look around and see signs of hope. Every day is new, with a chance for something wonderful.  Maybe it's something that might pay off in the future -- small green leaves that will bloom in September, or bare blackberry canes that will be filled with flowers, then berries, and then delicious jam.

Or maybe it's not something that pays off in the future. Maybe it's something to just enjoy for today. That's great, too.

I hope you all find something nice to look at that brings you some hope. Today and every day.

Take care of yourselves.