Where Lilacs Still Bloom

T & T Book Club is a special thing for me.  My sister Tami and I started it many years ago.  Normally the plan is to choose a book for both of us to share reading each month.  The September selection was "Where Lilacs Still Bloom" by Jane Kirkpatrick.    Along with reading the same book we like to find something to discuss about the books or an idea for an activity that came to us through reading the pages of the book.  

Really loved reading Where Lilacs Still Bloom and the reason it grabbed my eye from it's prominent shelf at the library was that my favorite flowers are lilacs.  I'm really not sure why as the blooming season is so short.  But the perfume from lilacs is like nothing else!  Page 16  "A lilac says, 'Here is a place to stay'"  I loved that.  Three of the five homes that I have lived in since getting married have had a lilac bush.  The present one is huge, actually having a 3-fold purpose to smell beautifully in the spring, to provide a shelter belt from the weather for our dog, and to hide the neighbors little dog from our big dog to eliminate barking!  It has accomplished all 3 purposes already this year!  (We didn't live here when it was blooming - but we had intentions to purchase the home).

Tami and I have two assignments to go along with the September Selection:  #1 Pick a discussion question from the end of the book and blog about it and #2 Work hard to "winter" a plant and transplant it outside in the spring.  Doesn't have to be a lilac sprig - - - but some type of blooming flower or plant.

I have chosen question #7 which says:  Do you agree with Hulda when she tells her sister, "Beauty matters . . . God gave us flowers for a reason.  I think so we'd pay attention to the details of creation and remember to trust Him in all things big or little, no matter what the challenge.  Flowers remind us to put away fear, to stop our rushing and running and worrying about this and that, and for a moment have a piece of paradise right here on earth."  Hulda is a real life German immigrant wife and mother who definitely weathered her share of fear and loss.  Her gardens were what kept her focused and grounded through all kinds of disasters.  I don't know if I have her determination, but I certainly have her love for "a garden".    Not until just recently did I consider a flower garden a REAL garden.  I guess I thought it had to be edible or preservable for the winter to be a garden.   But I had recently began to call my back-porch - my garden - because I had flowering pots, hanging baskets, a small corner flower bed, and a very special huge Trumpet Vine tree that grew so beautifully right out my back door.  Every spring I would put together the flower pots, purchase some hanging baskets, and tend to the corner flower bed with mulch and water.  As I have moved now to a different place - God has blessed me again with a "garden".  As I have shared in previous blogs - I now have roses as pictured below.  I have sedum in the back that is blossoming a pretty purple flower this fall, and I have some flower pots - that I packed up and brought with me.  Thus, I have a garden.   Yes, I am a gardener.    I don't share Hulda's determination to make bigger and better varieties, my desire for that stops with watering and feeding, tending to, talking to, and looking at.  I love my flowers.  Yes beauty matters.   I notice it all around.  I notice my neighbors brightly blooming flower pots perfectly placed around her property in little groups of 2 or 3 - a mixture of colors and ferns as well.  I notice when I walk the blocks or ride the streets the yards with flowers.    They are a great enjoyment to me. I like the idea of thinking that somehow they would keep away fear? and worrying?  and rushing and running? I will think on that and make it my truth as well.   My husband is getting ready to build a small fence to border our patio.  I have always wanted a patio.  Now I will have a true corner of paradise to sit in and ponder, read, rest, visit, pray, study.

Check out my sister's blog about Where Lilacs Still Bloom at Just One More Thing . . .