Purple Trillium

Until Sunday afternoon I had never seen a purple trillium. (According to Wikipedia it is actually a Red Trillium, but I'm not alone in recognizing it as purple!) Nestled amongst the plethora of white trillium along the side of the tiny trail were smatterings of these beautiful purple flowers.

And I almost didn't see them.

I was out for a walk doing some audio listening for a course I'm taking. I was paying attention to my heartrate (doctor's orders!). I was catching up to Angie who had started walking about 20 minutes earlier while I finished some things at home. The point is, I was distracted and almost missed the gift of seeing these amazing flowers.

It wasn't until I met up with Angie and we were walking together that she pointed them out. And even then, my first tendency was to give them cursory acknowledgement and then keep walking - listening, focusing on my heartrate - missing out on the gift of beauty offered us. Angie, on the other hand, paused. She looked more closely. She took pictures.

I should point out that when we walk she is normally significantly faster than I am. I tend to me more of an ambler. But when presented with a gift, she took the time to receive it.

On Sunday morning we talked about God's laughable gifts. Perhaps to you, talking about a flower is a laughable idea of a gift. But nature, the world around us is the second gift God gave us (after life itself)! It is there for us to receive, enjoy, and help flourish. But to do so, we need to take the time to not rush past the gifts is put in our path.