Monday, May 10, 2010

Iris Show

Can you imagine the scent of iris filling a room, people humming around blooms like drunken bees, too enchanted by sweetness to let a grain of bitter cling to their faces? I can. The memory is like pollen gathered unintentionally by the circumstance of movement through the day, of a moment when I felt a weight clinging, pulling me into an awareness- that everyone in the room was transformed by blooms. Not one up-turned face soured the fragrance of the air. People smiled, talked among strangers like old friends sharing treasure stashed in stalks of color.
The iris club I belong to, Louisville Area Iris Society, recently had a show and sale. I had the privilage of sitting in that room a good part of the day, tending to various duties. It didn't take long to feel my own mood shift, lighten as if I were one of those molecules of sweet floating around the room.
There is an intangible fact about gardeners- they are generous with themselves, their plantings, their seeds, as if sowing gratitude into earth. I think it's because they sow themselves into the day bent on their kness, fingers working through soil like awls -traces left on their hands clasping another's like a gift.

5 comments:

  1. Lovely. Gardeners ARE always sharing their bounty! :) The desire to share is wonderful. As long as it's not eggplant.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The club sounds lovely, Sheri, and the imagery you've give, even mores so.

    Psst Melanie, hubs put out way too many eggplants this year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mercy buckets Kim. Talk about aroma-therapy...
    I wanted to do nothing but sit there and breathe. lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love the last two sentences...awesome pairing of words.

    ReplyDelete