This Beautiful, Is You

Somewhere, Dear Ones, in our youth or childhood, we must have done something good. Because in the words of little Margaret on the Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet version of Sense and Sensibility, "We've been enjoying very fine weather."

Spring weather gets inside me. Autumn weather gets inside me too. It gets into my soul and soothes it and inspires me to remember. But spring weather gets into my fingertips and my bare feet and my smile. It makes me want to be better things and do happier things and enjoy all the things.

My dear friend Lori has moved away, and she recently asked me, "Is my tree blooming yet?" And I looked down the street, and saw only branches at first, though I noticed when I drove by for a closer view that the buds were there, but closed. But then the very next day...

Lori's tree is this one: The glorious, the breathtaking, the beautiful tree that I call a magnolia, though I'm not quite sure that's correct.

There are several in my neighborhood. And there is no sight like this tree! I look at it and think, "I will never be unhappy AGAIN," and "I'm going to be the best version of myself from this moment on," and "I. So. Believe.

"The thing that always hurts me though and strikes me as so very strange is that this absolute miracle of nature only lasts a few days really. The blooms are blown away so shortly after they arrive. The tree is perfectly pleasant-looking when it's green, but that awe-inspiring, this-can't-be-true kind of wonderful only lasts a moment.

Life only happens right now. Today is the only part we know for sure is blooming. And I just hope you're flat out showing it off.