Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Created for our EnJOYment


With my new view opened up, and the days now exuberantly long, it's easy to feel celebratory. And what could bring out the feelings of ecstasy and joy more than brilliant azaleas? Ho-hum, you say. What are they but bushes, right? "Stay Out da Bushes!" as Jesse Jackson famously said.

But come with me to the University of Washington's famed Japanese Garden, and you will see much more. There, in a carefully tended oasis of tranquility, are growing spheres clipped so that now, in the epitome of springtime, they become brilliant balls of magenta, scarlet and peach. Come closer. You'll see that the solid mass of shocking hue is really made up of
thousands of perfect, individual flowers, each one in itself worthy of display. Together, they sound a chorus of color. Each small, seven-petaled bloom, opening like a hungry baby bird to the sun, with its arching stamens and contrasting freckles in its throat, cries out abundance. We are given more gifts than we can collect.

The rhododendron is the state flower of Washington. It grows wild, with crimson flowers that burst forth in clusters, lighting verdant fir forests. Evergreen, rhododendrons have been cultivated as front-yard favorites, and now, at the UW Arboretum, "Azalea Way" is aflame with pinks, whites, and mottled psychedelic mounds, amid periwinkle meadows of field hyacinths, fluffy dandelions, and paths of unmown grass richly and intensely green.

Enough procrastinating. Time to be bookish...but my head turns toward my window as I unsuccessfully resist the exhilarating call of spring.

1 comment:

  1. ah yes, joy doth SPRING eternal as procrastination takes a seat 'way in the back of this multi-more-than-IMAX glory that is
    G-d's gift to us mere undeserving mortals. So prepare to fill your heart, eyes, spirit, and viewfinder with boundless borders of blooms as you hie away to northern climes this weekend -- and come back rested, relaxed, and ready to rock, roll, and 'rite till you affix your final punctuation mark to your long-postponed prose. Some friend I am, posting as I do and enticing you to blog back. But I stand ready to serve, I have my assignments, let's put this baby to bed so we can play our way into summer, whaddaya say? Hip, hip, BOUQUET -- poses in posies away!!

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