Have you ever seen a lonely lovely lilac in a field near nothing but grass and sky—rooted in one, reaching for the other with purple passion for the light?
If you have a spade, time, and permission, you could probe the ground just beyond the plant’s garlanded shoulders and find remains of a cellar hole, a foundation of field stone that once held a house. Who lived there and planted the lilac off the corner board so many decades ago? Who hoped for love, invited Spirit, and prayed for peace as winter gave way to the first fragrance of Spring?
New structures on the land boast satellite dishes, not lilacs. Culturally, we crave news, entertainment, and distraction—an education, employment, and church on good days—and doctors’ appointments to heal our aging, sedentary lives, isolation, and despair. Twenty-first century material culture has replaced the horticulture that provided a civil meeting place for humans with Mother Nature.
I live in an old, Vermont vernacular, farmhouse. The house wanders around a yard that snow buries in winter. With every addition to the house over the last 217 years, a lilac was planted on the corner. The oldest are the first to bloom in the spring, throwing their pale, lavender scent on wild winds of meteorological indecision. Bees hear their wakeup call.
The deep purple “double French” lilacs follow. Their nectar beckons the hummingbirds back from their southern journeys. The white lilacs are next. They were planted off the corner of the old kitchen, now gone, its foundation discovered with the newest addition.
Finally, the Miss Kim lilacs burst forth with their bounty. From Korea, they took longer to arrive. Their prolific, fragrant flowers decorate the doorways of bird nests. They provide safe practice space for fledglings in the warm wind of early summer.
A day will come when someone else will wonder who planted the lilacs on this hillside farm. Who hoped for love, invited Spirit, and prayed for peace? At least I hope those are the questions they hold in a world where love, Spirit, and peace are priorities as well as possibilities.
As I turn another corner in my life, I think I will plant a lilac.