Lilacs, discovered

I love lilacs, all the more so for the brevity of their season--they bloom for just a few weeks in the spring.  Right now, the lilacs outside our bedroom window are blooming, and their scent is heavenly. 

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What is extraordinary about this is, we never knew these lilac bushes were there, despite our 6 springs here, despite the bushes' 12 feet or so of height.

How, you ask, did we manage to miss the lilacs' existence all of these years?

Well, first of all, weeds and trees had grown up in front of the lilacs, hiding them from us.

Second, we didn't know to look.

When we uncovered them last summer, we didn't even know for sure that they were lilacs.  We had an idea they might be, because Hubby had run into the previous owners a few months before, who asked if the lilacs they had transplanted the fall before they moved had survived.  At the time, we thought they hadn't.  Survived, that is.  Because surely, if there were three lilac bushes outside our bedroom window, we would have seen them.

Apparently not, because there they are.  Not only did they survive, they thrived, gaining 9 feet of height since they had been transplanted 6 years prior.

Our lilacs' existence reminds me that so often we don't realize the beauty in our lives, in our selves, because weeds have grown up, and we don't even know to look. It's only when we clear away the extra junk that we realize what has been there all the time.

For me, that junk takes the form of self-doubt, anxiety, poor self-image, feelings of worthlessness, depression. For MC, that junk blocking his way is his sensory issues, frustration, and anger. For you, it's probably something different. But know this: whatever weeds, whatever ugly junk is in the way, hiding it, there is something beautiful planted in you, waiting to be uncovered. In each one of us. So start looking, friends.

I am astounded that these lilacs exist, just as I am astounded that there could be something beautiful and lovely in me. We don't know if the lilacs have been blooming all these years--I don't see how they could have been, because even with the weeds and that ugly tree in the way, I'm sure I would have noticed. 

But now they are blooming.  And that's what's waiting for me, for you, when we accomplish the difficult work of clearing away the ugliness: a life in bloom.