The blue scilla called and I answered.
For years, I have walked this same river path, and nothing brings me more joy than the arrival of the blue scilla. For despite gray clouds, cold rains, and flashes of snow, they are the first to remind us that, finally, spring is here.
Although it is a tiny flower, the blue scilla’s strength is in its numbers. Like an ocean wave, they flow into the woods, over greening hills, and along riverbanks spreading their blue beauty ever farther each year.
On this day, the warm sunshine has drawn many of us outside including what appears to be a high school senior posing for her graduation picture. As her mother and the photographer happily fuss over the photo shoot, the graduate reclines atop the blue scilla like a queen upon a barge of blue.
Stopping to admire this delightful scene filled with the promise of youth with all its new beginnings, I must admit, I was a little bit envious.
But then I said to myself, “Hey! I’m a senior too, although at the opposite end of the spectrum, and spring’s message of renewal and transformation is for all of us, no matter what the age, as are the blue scilla.”
And so, with a bit of awkward agility, I too flung myself amidst the blueness of this wildflower sea. Although no one took my photo, I will long remember the moment, for a remembrance of youth crept into my soul. With the strength of the warming earth beneath my back and the soft scent of the blue scilla around me, I knew exactly what the poet William Blake meant when he wrote, “Heaven in a wildflower.”
