"Las Flores Blancas" a poem by my sister Sue

LAS FLORES BLANCAS

I wake up cringing because it is Mom’s first birthday since she died last summer. Her birthday always falls on the first day of Spring.

Downstairs I am greeted by a profusion of new white flowers dotting the dark green bushes that climb the walls outside my kitchen windows. I gasp at this beautiful surprise gift from nature.

My eyes are drawn to them and I sense this confident smiling power above me, like Glinda circling her wand to send snow over the poppies in order to wake Dorothy from a poisoned sleep.

Mama knows her babies are sad today so she asked God if she could be the one to open the buds this first day of Spring.

She opened a hundred white flowers in my garden today. I sense her strong, secure, faithfilled, hopeful presence. I am drawn to look closely at the flowers whose petals are shaped like gently cupped hands, cupped to hold a tiny hurting heart. The petals delicately moving in the warm breeze, beckon me to climb inside and be held and rocked gently until my pain subsides.

I smile at all these flowers, each with the power to soothe me. She wants me to know that she knows I am sad. We are all sad and she sends the lilies of the fields to comfort us and insists we reach for hope and love, as nature insists with new buds that burst through each Spring, no matter how harsh Winter has been.

I was awed by the power the flowers held to draw me in, insist I stop suffering alone, and hold me in their soothing embrace.

One time on her birthday she told me, smiling proudly, “I bring the Spring.” God granted her wish to bring Spring in a brand new way this year.

I wish for you that you find the flowers she sprinkled in your garden today.

VSS
3-21-2007