Bittersweet choices

Round colorful mounds placed upon green straws.

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Spring is Sweet but Bittersweet

As blue bells ring out their beauty and lilacs spray their sweetness, I marvel at the multi-colored tulip beds at Foster Park.  Redbuds light the paths to gardens filled with spectacular colors of red, yellow, purple, and pink.  Then, I sneeze and sneeze.  My eyes itch and I hear that familiar spring wheeze within.  How can I be allergic to such beauty?

God made these beautiful blossoms and me.  It is ironic these eye candies carry pollen to refurbish themselves, yet make me sneeze.  Yes, I understand that my autoimmune system needs its youthful vigor.  I know staying inside helps combat the pollen intake.  But really, who (old or young) can stay inside on these beautiful, treasured days?

I consider the seagulls that have been designed with boomerang wings.  It is not easy to begin their flight compared to other slight of wing birds. However, they can climb the wind to float on the top rung of the flight latter.   They need only to flap when they start to drop.  Their design is perfect for their full bodies.  So, what seems difficult becomes and asset because they can fly high above in the heavens and see what fish or sand scraps they choose.  They descend by just gliding in the wind to dine at sea or sand.

I consider the great horned owl.  His favorite meal is a skunk.  I suppose his appetite to exist is stronger than the smell he must withstand.  Again, a struggle and strange combination exists in our natural world.

I consider the tulips.  Their beauty is breathtaking when their blooms pop open like a set alarm clock.  They are framed by dazzling red bud and lilac trees, which hear the same alarm.  Their beauty fleeting before my eyes because that same alarm that signaled the bud, now signals their time on earth is over.  “ Too soon, too fast,” I declare over the beds of glory.  In retrospect, I should rejoice over their reign. It is my artist heart that would like them to stay and bloom all summer.  However, then there would be no such season as spring.

So whether it is allergies, boomerang wings, stinky prey, or a brief life span, I must let the trial come to gather the blessing and manna of this day.