Flower Child

“We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it. If it were not the earth where the same flowers come up again every spring that we used to gather with our tiny fingers. What novelty is worth that sweet monotony where everything is known and loved because it is known?”

-George Eliot

This quote entered my space recently when I re-watched Little Women for the third time. But this time, these words lingered a little longer in my heart.

It actually made me think of how true that statement is.

Lately, with every daily walk or errand, a flower in bloom catches my eye with childlike wonder.

Maybe because after another Springtime pandemic, reconnecting with the outdoors after a hibernated lockdown feels…familiar.

Maybe because cherry blossoms and yellow tulips symbolize normalcy.

Whenever I see a daisy, I get the urge to tuck it behind my ear like I used to growing up in the 90s. Pink tulips make me think of all the times my Mom knelt down to hug us when we gifted them for her birthdays. Magnolia trees remind me of the house down the street where I grew up, and how we’d drive by in excitement every Spring before it transformed into green leaves.

That childlike wonder has inspired me to snap some shots of my favourite petals popping up outside of me.

Here they are again, leaving me in awe.

Even at age 35, I look up at pink blossoms and see cotton candy on trees.