pink popcorn spring

“… Winter was over and gone with the thrill of delight that spring never fails to bring to the oldest and saddest as well as to the youngest and merriest.”

– Lucy Maud Montgomery

Get ready for a pink explosion.

For weeks now it seems like there is something to take a picture of almost every day because the days leading up to spring were just too beautiful not to save. One day our plum tree decided to bloom with these perfect blush-colored flowers that I couldn’t help but admire against the blue sky. Then two bushes started blooming in our backyard in shades of Barbie pink and lemon yellow, and now we’ve got a small peach tree that decided to burst with cotton candy-like, fluffy petals.

Our tulips in the backyard that my mom sent us last fall for a house warming gift began to make their way through the rocks weeks ago and finally decided to bloom the last couple days. Every time I see them I think of her and my mother-in-law who helped me plant them. Both our mothers are represented in those tulips which is such a lovely thing.

Sometimes when I’m driving home from work, I’m taken away by all those trees that really do look like popcorn has popped on them. When I was really little I learned a song about that in church, but I never knew what the lyrics meant. I mostly just liked the tune and how our leaders taught us to burst our hands open like fireworks while singing “popcorn popping on the apricot tree!”

This spring has made everything feel lighter. I think it’s the warmer weather, sunshine and all those flowers and signs of new life. It does seem strange to move into a new season without my dad here, but in a way, it’s like the world is telling me it’s going to be OK. There is hope in new life springing out of the ground like our tulips out of rocks. There is a happy feeling in the lemon and Barbie blossoms.

Then there have been the clouds. Remember all the hearts I saw in the sky one day? I felt very much like it was an Anne of Green Gables moment. I could imagine her looking for them just as I did, but she would have been talking aloud, imagining and renaming the open space to something like Paths to Divine White Hearts of Hope.

I’ve been watching for heart clouds ever since, but they are much more scarce than I thought. I did see a few on a long drive home from Denver last weekend, but other than that, there haven’t been any when I’ve been watching. It makes me think I witnessed a small miracle that day when they kept appearing over and over.

I’ve been looking for hearts more lately in general, and it seems when they don’t appear for me, they appear for someone else who will take a photo and send it to me. I’ve loved this so much. Those photos brighten my day every time and it makes me think we’re all on this heart hunt together.

I think I’m ready for this spring. It was a long, strange, sad winter. While I don’t know for sure what’s next, I see really hopeful signs that things will be good. I sense that “thrill of delight that spring never fails to bring the oldest and saddest as well as the youngest and merriest.”

Now without further adieu, here are pieces of this beautiful world I’ve been seeing lately.