Few things lift my spirits more than having fresh flowers in the house. I’m blessed to have rosebushes that give and give without counting the cost, so for a good part of the year, I get to enjoy beauties like these.
The other day, though, I was surveying my rosebushes, and the pickings were pretty slim. The pink ones were between blooms, and many of the white ones were rendered undisplay-able due to pest damage ( I curse you, thrips! shaking of fist). I’d be waiting a few days, it seemed, for my fresh flower fix.
And then I thought of the lavender bush in the front flowerbed. It’s been there for a few years, but this spring, I swear it seems to have doubled in size. ( It’s like the phenomenon that happens all the time to high school teachers: you run into the junior who was in your class as a tiny freshman, and he’s suddenly towering over you like an NBA player.) I looked at the lavender, with its purply gray-green lushness, and thought: You’re coming into the house with me.
Dodging the fat black bumblebees, I snipped several stalks. Once I was done I put it all in a little green vase on my prayer table, and I can’t tell you how happy that little bouquet makes me. As I sit here and read or write or meditate, I pause periodically to rub the flowers, and I drink in one of the most intoxicating scents God ever created.
It’s a very good pairing, lavender and prayer. I’m glad I had a reason to try it.
I love lavender! Do you know Nora Bradbury Hael, from Busted Halo? She gave me some lovely lavender that she potted for me herself, as a graduation gift. Mmmmm… beautiful. When mine blooms, I will put some in a small vase, thinking of both you and her – and of God.
That’s lovely. Isn’t there something about the scent of flowers? Our neighbors have a gardenia bush in full bloom that I can smell when I walk out my front door and it’s like breathing in my great-grandmother (who always kept gardenias in the house). There really is something prayerful and God-like about the delicious scent of a flower – a little reminder that God loves us and fills all of our senses.
Viki, gardenias are intoxicating! I love them. My grandma used to have one by her backdoor.
Fran, I do know Nora — we met in NYC, like, a zillion years ago. It was a BH conference, way back in the early days — good times. Say Hi to her from me. 🙂