Blossom Time

It’s

here in Minnesota and all of the crab apple trees are in bloom. Everywhere I walk I catch the sweet scent of apple blossoms. Isn’t it glorious?

I took a walk in the small park in my neighborhood with my camera yesterday afternoon while the skies were still mostly overcast. The light was perfect for doing close-ups of crab apple blossoms. These perfect blossoms are already scattering petals on the ground beneath the trees. So the time to enjoy them is in this moment, now. Their beauty is transcendent but it only lasts for a few days.

But he calls down a blessing on the blossom of the May,
Because it comes in beauty, and in beauty blows away.”
― W.B. Yeats, Stories of Red Hanrahan by W.B.Yeats, Fiction, Literary, Classics, Short Stories

I saw some geese and mallard ducks in the pond beside the park. And I saw a butterfly on a wild weed that was in bloom in the park. After I came home from the park I searched Butterflies and Moths of Minnesota to figure out what type of butterfly it was. It turns out that it was a garden pest, the White Cabbage Butterfly. Still I found it beautiful and delicate to watch.

I find that when I approach nature without preconceptions I can see and appreciate its beauty in almost everything.

Today I plan to do some container gardening, replacing old soil with new and planting lettuce, sugar snap peas and herbs. And I may wander in the park again taking in the sights and scents of apple blossoms in full bloom. The beauty and fragrances of spring are fleeting so I treasure each moment of this time of year.

When the entire universe blazes into being, take it all inside yourself, without exception. When the only word is “Yes,” when your point of view dissolves into every viewpoint and no viewpoint at all, when the Big Bang is happening in every instant you are fully and finally alive.

— Danna Faulds, Limitless

Say “Yes!” to it all this week my friends. The beauty of these days is fleeting so soak it in, inhale its fragrance, bask in the light and color and scents of spring.

May you walk in beauty.