Love of small gifts:  Writing Assignment #14

by Lynda McKinney Lambert

Pachysandra Blooms at the end of April

in western Pennsylvania

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My own AWARENESS of SMALL GIFTS for today is the FLOWERS of the PACHYSANDRA.

Bob and I planted dozens of small starts of a luxurious ground cover that is in the boxwood family. It is the Pachysandra plants – little thick, hardy vines.  After so many years, they grow in numerous locations surrounding our rural home. Beds of Pachysandra surround the pink Dogwood tree and a diagonally leaning Apple tree. The plants flourish along the old weathered sawmill plank fence and burgeon down into the woods that surround the property.

During long frigid winter months, the Pachysandra leaves remain on the ground, brown and crisp. 

It seemed as though the sleeping leaves would never again be the deep forest green, lush, and plentiful with blushing white clover-line blossoms.

This week I discovered the myriad of fragrant flora nestled deep in the vines. I bent over and snapped off  one, sniffed it, and was surprised by the strong scent the little flowers have.  It reminds me of the honeysuckle vines that spread a heady scent of summer fragrance in the early mornings and evenings. For the Honeysuckle, once the sun is up and shining down on the vines, you cannot smell the blossoms again until evening. But, unlike the Honeysuckle, I found that the blossoms of the Pachysandra can be enjoyed any time of day in late April.   I picked a few little flowers from the vines and brought them into my kitchen to add the scent of April to the house.

In truth, I must admit that until this week, I never noticed those perky little pachysandra e flowers on the plants s before this week! The flowers bloom profusely regardless of my absence of attention to them.  Little GIFTS from God are often overlooked when we are too occupied with the big, overwhelming situations and obsessions in life. I am thankful today, for the little GIFT of a delicate Pachysandra blossoms, sprinkled with wet dewdrops in the vegetation of an early morning.

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Walking by Inner Vision – Writing Assignment #14

This assignment takes you outside to have a look around – and find a small blossom blooming. Is it one you are aware of, or is it an unexpected surprise.

Write a short essay about your discovery.  Be sure to give lots of details about what you have discovered because our next assignment will turn your essay information into a poem. You want to have lots of good descriptive details in your essay so you have lots of good information to pick from when you are ready to create a poem.

LOOKING AHEAD: 

You can go to our NEXT Walking by Inner Vision Journal Assignment – and LEARN HOW to WRITE a DIAMONTE Poem!  “Diamonte”  is the Italian word for “DIAMOND.”

Let’s write a Diamond Poem about a small FLOWER you have discovered.  You will use your short essay that you wrote in THIS ASSIGNMENT – Writing Assignment #14 – for information to help you get started with your poem. Your assignment foe TODAY is to go find some unexpected little blossom you had not noticed before.