{"id":8843,"date":"2014-07-10T14:22:33","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T18:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?p=8843"},"modified":"2014-07-10T14:22:33","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T18:22:33","slug":"the-fragrance-of-lilies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2014\/07\/the-fragrance-of-lilies.html","title":{"rendered":"the fragrance of lilies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a>These are two of the lilies growing against a rather derelict fence at my son’s & DIL’s. Beautiful, pale yellow, with only a light lily fragrance. Not the heaviness that always seems to suffuse funerals.<\/p>\n

I love them, of course. Cut them while my DIL was away at a working retreat, and placed them in her blue glass vase to welcome her home. We hadn’t thought we’d be here when she returned — we expected to be on the road this morning — and I hoped she’d know I thought of her.<\/p>\n

Love is full of small gestures, and I’m afraid I don’t make them often enough. I’m pretty good to lend you a tenner if you need gas, or help with a reference or a resum\u00e9 question. \u00a0But I don’t always think to do the small things — I’m actually not a very thoughtful person!<\/p>\n

But I adore my DIL, and wanted to leave her something concrete, besides leftover roast beef. \ud83d\ude42\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As it turns out, the universe had plans for us. The guys (my son & best-beloved) are still in the throes of house chores: frosted glass in the bathroom, shaving two doors so they no longer stick. Building sawhorses and then worktables. So we were already considering leaving tomorrow.<\/p>\n

And then my grandson woke up with a fever. It went down bit by bit, but he obviously didn’t feel well. So we’re here another day, and I can try in other ways to let my son & DIL know how dear they are.<\/p>\n

Love’s kind of like lilies, isn’t it? \u00a0There’s the concrete — the flowers — and the ineffable, the fragrance. I love them both. But the fragrance, I confess, is my favourite. Of course, you can’t have it w\/out the physical lily, I realise. Still — I can smell these in the kitchen, when the fan moves the still air.<\/p>\n

Kind of like love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are two of the lilies growing against a rather derelict fence at my son’s & DIL’s. Beautiful, pale yellow, with only a light lily fragrance. Not the heaviness that always seems to suffuse funerals. I love them, of course. Cut them while my DIL was away at a working retreat, and placed them in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,397],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,1195,1281,837],"class_list":["post-8843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-love","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-family","tag-love","tag-the-little-things"],"yoast_head":"\nthe fragrance of lilies - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"These are two of the lilies growing against a rather derelict fence at my son's & DIL's. 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