Another Missed Opportunity for Joy

Since I had such a disappointing year for lilacs, I am reposting a picture of what a good lilac year looks like (2008) and the accompanying blog entry from that year...hopefully an oldie but a goodie, as I buy myself some time to finish planting my garden!

The Time of Lilacs...                                                                      

My lilac bushes are over 50 years old and as tall as the first story of my two story house.  If we don't have an early spring or a late frost, my bushes produce an abundance of blooms, scenting the air with lilac and affording me endless branches to fill every room in my house with color and fragrance!

I was blessed this year, I had a spectacular show of lilacs.  To top it off, it was over 80 degrees two weeks ago today, just as my lilacs were were at the height of their beauty and fragrance...and all I wanted to do was just sit on my front porch swing for the afternoon and breathe.  Read a little, swing a little, pray a little, and breathe. But alas for me, I had a porch to paint, laundry to do and floors to scrub.  But tomorrow, I promised myself, tomorrow I would steal away and take time to just enjoy God' s gift of a perfect lilac year. 

Well, tomorrow came and brought with it over a week's worth of rain and cold temperatures.  My lilacs were still there, I was able to fill vases for flower arrangements and dry some for Christmas potpourri, but that perfect 80 degree afternoon was gone, and when it comes again the lilacs will be but a memory.  Another missed opportunity for joy.

It was a year ago this month that my father-in-law Harry was told that he had two months to live.  The cancer that was slowly working its way through his body had entered his brain.  As he struggled to come to terms with his impending death, he told me that life is really short, and his time had just flown by so quickly.  Thankfully, Harry had come to terms with God years ago, and his salvation was assured through the sacrifice of Jesus.  As his time on earth came to a close, Harry wanted to indulge in all the things that brought him joy in life...time with family, having great grandchildren stay during Bible School week, revisiting favorite fishing holes, Aunt Carol's liver and onions, friends dropping off baskets of fresh garden produce and spending every second that he could on his front porch, watching his corn grow and enjoying the deer that walked past his house to get a drink of water from the canal.  Little things really, but at the end of life simple things take on an enormous importance.  Opportunities for joy.

I missed my lilac day.  I was too busy scrubbing floors that the dogs would track mud all over the following day.  Are you like that?  Are you one of those people that find joy in taking a walk, listening to birdsong, sitting on your porch swing or reading by the fire...but like me put off joy to complete the task at hand?   Then maybe we should learn a lesson from Harry, and live in the moment, taking full advantage of the sweet gifts that the Lord has given us for our delight...lilacs in full bloom being one of them.  I am not advocating slothfulness, but rather a balance, looking to blend opportunities for joy into each day by giving my full attention to the smell of coffee in the morning or the hoot of the owl outside my bedroom window at night.

Maybe, like Harry, we should learn to live each day as if it were our last.     DLB