Miracle or not; the Dilemma of the Jacaranda
Just lying here all weekend, it was a quiet Memorial Day, no sun, no beach-goers, lovely coolness. My leg swollen and black and blue, typing on the computer while keeping my leg high, trying to get the swelling down.
When the mind is busy writing, the pain is tolerable. Late at night I found myself watching public television, trying to ease into sleep, not expecting to be inspired.
Then there was the Huell Howser episode on Jacaranda trees. A whole street with blue-lavender flowers overhead appeared on the screen, a cloud of beauty. We’re seeing them now popping up here and there in Laguna Beach, each one a flamboyant celebration of spring. Spring in a subtropical climate; we may not have the forsythias, lilacs and dogwoods of the east coast, but we have Jacarandas and many other flowering plants who love it here.
I could hear before they said it, the complaints about the falling flowers on cars and sidewalks. Rather than seeing carpets of purple there would be some who only saw a mess of unwanted tree debris.
How could they not see that the miracle of this yearly display gives joy beyond measure? An expression of nature giving us beauty despite all our attempts to confine and control it.
Howser quoted Albert Einstein, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
We seem to be having a non-miracle point of view in our city at present. It shows itself in the search for problems to be solved, problems rooted in complaints and unhappiness. Yet our whole city, our whole community is a miracle; our lives here are miraculous. We can make it better by rejoicing in its beauty, letting more loveliness peak through, and holding hands.
Landscape architect Ann Christoph is a former council member.
