A few days ago we officially had the entrance of spring! However, the weather did not get the message where I live and it has been a contest of wills since. I love spring and being originally from North Carolina, I miss the beautiful flowers and colors they bring with them along with the fragrance of the blossoms.
Memories are attached to sight, sound and smells. I have a very distinct memory attached to the fragrance of the magnolia tree. My great Aunt Hettie had a huge magnolia tree in her front yard. As kids we loved to climb this tree since the branches were low to the ground and close enough to each other for us to move from one to the other with ease.
However, that is only one memory that I recall related to the gorgeous and enormous magnolia tree. The most significant memory is of the fragrance from the flower of the tree.
I am not a fan of that particular fragrance. This is a very unusual flower.
As a kid I remember my Aunt Hettie cutting some of the blossoms off of the tree and bringing them into her house. She would put them in a bowl of water where they would float in my parents bedroom and in other rooms in the house.
What troubled me as a kid was how the flowers would close at night and reopen in the morning. They did this for several days in a row. It was spooky in my little mind how they could do that. Maybe I thought they might come alive and get me like in the movie about the fly traps. Are you laughing now? They really scared me and to this day I don’t like them!
I loved my Aunt Hettie. My visits with her have sweet memories of great times growing up. But I could have done without that creepy magnolia flower. In spite of that I embrace the memory of that beautiful tree and all the good times experienced there.
My advice and take away is to enjoy the good memories and laugh as you can at the crazy and creepy ones. It seems so silly now looking back and yet as a 8 year old little girl that flower was bigger than life.
Thank you for taking this short trip down memory lane with me. Spring is slowly coming alive. Now let’s breathe in the sweet fragrances and take in the beauty around us. Enjoy and see you next time.
