May 13, 2013

Lilac time

Lilac time

The lilacs are blooming, just as they have every May for as I can remember. When I was small, my brother and I used to play trucks in the loose dirt under the lilac bushes at my parents’ house. When I was in labor with my son Boy-in-Black, my husband and I walked through neighborhood on a May evening, our toddler daughter between us, and the heavy scent of lilacs coming to us through the dark. 

“Lilacs don’t last very long,” a friend once complained when I said how much I loved them. It’s true. The fragrant purple flowers bloom quickly here, bursting forth on the first warm day, but all it takes is one hard rainstorm or one day of unseasonable heat – and the flowers are gone again. They are here for such a short time that I never get sick of the heady scent, or the amazing color.

Lilacs bloom during the season of transition. Last weekend, Shaggy Hair Boy graduated from college. This summer, he’ll start a program that will give him experience teaching high school math and eventually, a graduate degree. Skater Boy, the extra we’ve known since he was little, graduated as well. He’s got a job developing software for an engineering firm. Yeah, I know. That all sounds so very grown up.

Boy-in-Black turned 25 last weekend. He's a physicist. Beautiful Smart Wonderful Daughter works in the clinic as a therapist while she's getting her PhD. First Extra, whom we've known since second grade, works as an accountant. With-a-Why graduates from high school next month. He is playing Chopin on the piano as I write this.

They all just keep getting older. When I gather a bunch of lilacs and put them in a vase, I stop to smell the flowers, to breathe in the scent, to appreciate the flowers while they last.

3 comments:

Jody said...

I miss the lilacs so much here in the south. They grew in masses in the yards of my childhood and I loved them so much. It's funny how, in my memory, they seemed to bloom forever.

delagar said...

Those are so beautiful.

My kid's fifteen. They do grow up. Luckily, they keep getting better the older they grow!

Anonymous said...

The neighborhood lilacs here have already bloomed and fallen. That heady scent sends me back to childhood every spring. Love that flower.

The news has been so bleak lately about the prospects for young adults. It is heartening to know that there are young people who are finding their way in the world, contributing, working, dreaming.