]Passage 74 Wild Flowers

]Each spring brings a new blossom of wildflowers in the ditches along the highway I travel daily to work.

]There is one particular blue flower that has always caught my eyes.

]I've noticed that it blooms only in the morning hours, the afternoon sun is too warm for it.

]Every day for approximately two weeks, I see those beautiful flowers.

]This spring, I started a wildflower garden in our yard.

]I can look out of the kitchen window while doing the dishes and see the flowers.

]I've often thought that those lovely blue flowers from the ditches

]would look great in that bed alongside other wildflowers.

]Everyday I drove past the flowers thinking, “I'll stop on my way home and dig them.”

]“Gee, I don't want to get my good clothes dirty...”

]Whatever the reason, I never stopped to dig them.

]My husband even gave me a folding shovel one year for my trunk to be used for that expressed purpose.

]One day on my way home from work,

]I was saddened to see that the highway department had mowed the ditches

]and the pretty blue flowers were gone.

]I thought to myself, “Way to go, you waited too long.

]You should have done it when you first saw them blooming this spring.”

]A week ago we were shocked and saddened to learn that

]my oldest sister-in-law has a terminal brain tumor.

]She is 20 years older than my husband and unfortunately,

]because of age and distance, we haven’t been as close as we all would have liked.

]I couldn’t help but see the connection between the pretty blue flowers

]and the relationship between my husband's sister and us.

]I do believe that God has given us some time left to plant some wonderful memories

]that will bloom every year for us.

]And yes, if I see the blue flowers again,

]you can bet I'll stop and transplant them to my wildflower garden.