There are so many flowers blooming and growing. Which ones are resonating with your heart right now?
A few flowers always captivate my heart and attention each year.
Take peonies for example. I start looking for them in April, even though I know they don't really come until May. There are some peonies that sneak into shops early, but they are from far away. I want to wait for the local growers. Each week, I stalk the farmers markets and my favorite floral stores, waiting and watching for the beautiful blooms.
And of course, when the season of peonies start, I see them everywhere.
What I don't often notice, though, are the lilac flowers.
Now, a few years ago, lilacs captivated my attention.
The Exuberant Lilac Flower
Back in 2021 I'd seen pictures of lilacs on social media (as one does) and then hunted for them on Pinterest and then discovered them in one of my favorite cut floral books, Floret Farms Cut Flower Garden. For whatever reason, I didn't find them in the local flower stores where I shopped.
I loved the exuberance of the pictures of the lilacs, the way they stretch out on the branches, the bazillions of tiny flowers reaching up towards the sun. The stalks are huge, often taller than the person carrying them.
For years I thought lilacs were a flower growing up from the ground, not on the branches of a lilac tree! This idea seems silly, but perhaps it is one of the subtle lessons of getting one's information from the interwebs: the online world has a way of cutting and editing. Even if there is no intent to deceive or manipulate, the limitation of space prevents a truly accurate idea of something, whether that is someone's life or the exact details of a flower. But I digress. :)
This year I spotted dozens of lilac bouquets all wrapped up for Mothers' Day in my favorite floral shop / café, Ariston Café. Seeing them brought back memories of that season in 2022 and my enthusiasm over these happy flowers.
Side note. If you come and visit New York City and you like flowers and coffee, you must visit Ariston Café, on 5th Avenue and 14th St. In the front is a floral shop filled with seasonal beauties. Then you travel to the back of the shop where a two-story café brims with flowers everywhere, along with coffee and tables full of people relishing in the caffeine and beauty.
On a recent visit to Ariston Café, I saw the lilac flowers and was transported back to a season of painting a collection of lilac paintings, I'd called (not so creatively!), The Spring Collection. It was a time when I'd paint in the early morning hours, completely focused on finishing this collection as peers worked on projects of their own. I poured myself into my work.
Seeing the lilac flowers sitting there at Ariston brought up mixed emotions in me of the bittersweetness of that season. There had been a lot of anticipation, a ton of work and much expectation.
It hit me that I hadn't really seen – or noticed – any lilac flowers in the years since painting that collection. Had I simply missed them?
I bought a bunch and brought them home, inhaling their strong scent – it's not sweet or even gentle, lilacs have a bit of a pungent smell that is not unpleasant but quite distinct.
After setting them up near the window, they begged to be painted. So out came the art board and a piece of 140lb. watercolor paper and my paints. It didn't take long to create a light watercolor sketch. The lilacs shape seems to be made for painting.
Then a funny thing happened. I started to see lilacs everywhere.
At the farmers market in Union Square during the week.
At a local convenience shop on 82nd and 2nd street.
On a drive up to Connecticut, probably somewhere along the border of New York.
Lilacs popped up all over the place in varying shades of purple and pink.
It's funny how attention works. What we look for, we often find. I'm not trying to make some sort of grand life analogy here because life doesn't always work like that but sometimes it does.
It made me think, how many flowers have I missed simply because I was not looking for them or preoccupied or distracted by something going on in my head or on my phone or in the email inbox?
I don't know about you, but sometimes all the drama going on with relationships, work and other facets of life takes up a lot of real estate in my head and heart. This energy ends up choking out my ability to see, take in and metabolize the beauty that is right in front of me.
There's an unexpected benefit when I start intentionally looking for things, like the lilac flowers. Our brains can only think about so many things at the same time. When I start giving my attention to noticing the flowers or the different birds and so forth, other areas get less attention. That can be a really good thing.
Spring lasts for just a short while longer before summer comes in and takes over with heat and humidity. This is the perfect time to give our attention to the beauty.
I'm convinced God gave us flowers because he loves beautiful things and wants us to love his beautiful creation too. It wasn't a random act; it was very intentional. When we delight in the beauty around us, a lot of good things happen inside.
