Inspiration Thursday! Look around.

The gentle fall of cherry blossoms in full bloom.
The petals of an orange tulip, splayed like a child's fingers reaching for the sun.
Clumps of daffodils, faces forward, begging, "Pick me! Pick me!"
A regal old camellia bush bursting with little red crinoline petticoat flowers.
The glow of a tree, blossoming white, backlit by the gold of the setting sun.
A canopy of green, budding trees against a stormy sky.

These are the pictures in my mind as I drive back and forth to work drinking in God's creation around me. Writers more brilliant than I have tried to capture the newness of this season, the life unfolding around them. I struggle for words that capture what I see. I mentioned to a co-worker last week that the Cherry Blossom Festival (which is a very big deal in Washington, DC) had passed me by with all the craziness of this year. I don't want to miss this season and the renewal it brings.

Growing up, it was a common occurrence in my family for one of us to gasp, "Look at the TREE!" or "The daffodils are budding!" or "Look at the redbud in the mountains!" You see, we were "carefully taught" to pay attention to the world around us. Mama was intentional in drawing our attention to trees or flowers or even people with particularly interesting faces, which in Mama's world often included a lifetime of lines and wrinkles. She taught us to feel the promise of the coming year like the warmth of the sun. We would shed the darkness of winter days and embraced the light of a new cycle of life through the lilacs or the daffodils or the baby chipmunks we'd occasionally spot nesting in a wall.

I think when you're young, it's easier to see through those eyes. I find it a little harder at this age. There's always so much to do when you're juggling home, work, friends and family - even our fish, Jeeves, demands time. Thankfully, I had an intentional mother who trained me to look and see. So the snapshots continue to appear as I hurry along my way, sometimes stopping me, reminding me to breathe and give thanks for these gifts I've been given.