Lillies in Bloom

Down here at the compost facility, we are near many empty lots, junkyards, equipment yards. There is an former meat packing plant for sale. I drive by it every day and ponder the destination of all the crap that has collected over the years. It depresses me really. So much good stuff once upon a time. But after years of neglect and disuse, it has become unsightly, dangerous, and worthless.

But there is also a lot on the way home that makes me smile. Nine months of the year it looks like all the other lots around here: cluttered, junky, a hodgepodge of dusty disorderliness. Around the end of March somebody starts tilling rows and I get to thinking that it's going to be a vegetable garden. Looking at the place, why would anybody plant anything else but something to eat. About mid May, what looks like corn is sprouting and I nod in recognition. Corn: stable, sure-fire, useful. I am always a little jealous about how high it is so early on.

But in June, it hits me. It never creeps up, it is never subtle, it always hits. This lot is growing daylillies! Row and rows of daylillies. It is so incongruous to me. The blooms aren't harvested as far as I can tell. I 've never seen them at the local farmer's markets.

When I see it enough times to get over that disconnect, it dawns on me: flowers feed the soul like corn feeds the stomach, or some such. I think if I lived in squalor, I would need something beautiful to drag me through each day. Heck, I've got it made and I need something beautiful to drag me through each day!