This coming week and weekend is a time many people from around the world remember their heritage and celebrate their faith. The Jewish Passover begins at sundown April 10th and Easter Sunday is April 16th. For many, it’s a time to gather with family and friends, sharing a meal and spending time together, telling stories and remembering.

In life there are icons that help us tell the story, to remember events that happened last week or almost 3000 years ago. Plants play a vital part in all worldly religions and symbolize many milestones in our lives. There are times when a plant is much more than a plant. It becomes the memory of a loved one lost, a celebration of birth, a feast shared thousands of years ago, a resurrection and new life.

Many years ago I remember sitting with a woman in the garden center who was so distraught about a tree planted in the memory of her father. A fence was being built but the tree was in the way. What to do? Move the tree or make the fence not straight to go around her father’s memory. As we sat and talked and cried together, it became clear that the tree was so much more and needed to stay where it was.

I have 2 large pots of spider lilies that began with an old half rotten bulb a dear friend was given on a recovery retreat. She struggled with drugs and alcohol. She handed me the bulb and said “You probably couldn’t do anything with this now. It’s rotting and smells.” But with a little TLC those lilies have blessed my life with hundreds of flowers in summer and I remember my friend and celebrate her.

There are endless stories about plants that connect us to our past, our present and our future. They represent life, endurance, overcoming, goodness, beauty and the eternal.

Take time this week to remember and celebrate life and the sacred.

Happy Easter!

– Debbie