Last Monday was a typical gray spring morning. It rained off and on and looked generally dreary, since we're only just beginning to see the start of green here and there. That morning, from the kitchen window I spotted the only bits of color in the yard: the crocuses.
Since they're so small, they might be easy to miss in a big yard, except their colors are so bright! I can't even remember when I planted them -- at least 15 years ago, I bet. I ordered them from a Breck's catalog, and was sure they'd spread and create this carpet of color in the front yard. I was wrong - there are still only about 5 or 6 of them, but they are one of the highlights of spring for me, partly because they're always the first spring color we get!
It wasn't until I downloaded the picture to my computer and saw it on the monitor, that I noticed all the water droplets. I read a quote from Jim Wilson once that said something like, the more distant you are from an object, the more mysterious it seems. This is true when you think about the view from an airplane, or of a distant house lit up at night, or faraway lands. But what is also true is that the closer you get to an object, the better you can see and appreciate its detail and beauty -- things you couldn't have seen from a distance. The beauty is there, surrounding us, or as Elizabeth Barrett Browning said
“Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
