Lenten flowers

I could not keep Lent with my eyes today. There was no visual fasting as I took my walk with the children today.

We've had rain recently, and you would have thought it was Easter, what with the calla lilies and the white irises springing up in the flowerbeds of what seemed like every house we passed.

And the large purple bearded irises. Also, there were morning glories and bougainvillea, roadside daises and geraniums.

And the roses! Deep red and light orange and sunny yellow, and my favorite: pure white. It seemed like all of the thorny stems were in bloom.

Everywhere I turned there were bloms. Piles of soft branches of blossoming lantana and rosemary and lavender. And, incongruously, the tall poinsettia trees (yes, they're trees here) topped with bright red flowers.

And then there were the blossoms whose names I don't know, but that I love: the hot orange ones on the bushes and the cool, architectural pink ones on the slim silver-barked trees.

How, I ask you, is this appropriate for the first full week of Lent? This explosion of color, this celebration of flowers?

I don't know. But it made me wonder, as I pushed the heavy quad stroller, if practicing to mourn when you feel joyful might help you to be joyful when you feel like mourning.

Honestly, I don't know that either. But I like the flowers.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell