I must be feeling melancholy because I have really been thinking about my father lately. This post will focus on my sister Lori's yard. Yesterday her son Jake graduated from high school and I went to her home for a party. While I was there I took pictures of her yard which is glorious and this setting made me long for my father. I feel my father's spirit in her yard. One of the plants in abundance in her yard is a plant called spurge. This was one of my father's favorite plants and we had a joke amongst us that every plant my father gave one of us came with a piece of spurge in it. If you didn't see it that year it would usually appear a year or two later. Spurge is one of my favorite plants - it flowers in the early summer and has a bright yellow flower - at least the variety that my father loved. There are many other varieties I have found but the bright yellow is the one in my picture. When we moved to Utah for a couple of years I looked everywhere for this variety and couldn't find it. I did plant another variety that was a wood spurge and it had a lime green flower on it that was amazing.
Anyway, enjoy these pictures of my sister Lori's yard - it is my dream yard and being there makes me want to cry. As I said earlier - it reminds me of my father. One of his greatest loves was the earth and the beauty of it - he instilled this love not only in his children but in many that he associated with. He shared plants from his yard with many of our friends and the only criteria he had was that you got to have a tour of all of the beautiful flowers that were blooming at the time. He enjoyed each different attribute of the many flowers and would comment and point out the beauty of each individual plant. This is much like life and people - we are all different and we have different talents and attributes that make up who we are, but we are all special in our own unique way. That was a great lesson that my father taught me, and it has helped me to be tolerant and appreciative of each person.
Being surrounded at my sister Lori's house by the beautiful plants and flowers was truly like being in the Garden of Eden. It made me think of a song "How Great Thou Art" and the part it made me think of is - When thru the woods and forest glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees, When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, How great thou art! How great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, How great thou art! How great thou art!
Dad - my tribute to you on this my 53rd birthday is also - How Great Thou Art!, How Great Thou Art! I miss you and look forward to the reunion we will have some day!! Thank you for the things you taught me, the love for all things beautiful and the love for all things not so beautiful. You used to tell me to not always look for the next thing to make me happy and that the grass was not greener on the other side - just different and I have found that this is so true!! We have to find our happiness in whatever our situation and wherever we are no matter what. I know God loves me - I know I have a Savior who loves me, died for me and will always be there for me!!
My last comment is this: As I was driving home from my sister Lori's home I came down the hill toward my parent's home and saw the Crabapple tree in full bloom. This is truly an amazing thing and such a beautiful site to behold!! I grabbed my camera and took a shot - Enjoy my picture of this splendid tree!!
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