Saying goodbye to the Lilacs

 The lilac blossoms are spent and mostly brown, so we decided it was time to prune the bushes and trim out the dying blooms so that next year's flowers will be even more plentiful and beautiful.  It's sad to see them go. Even their intense, sweet fragrance has faded. 

But part of gardening is the anticipation you enjoy from the hard work.  What we did today we will surely reap the benefits of next April when, once again, I can fling open our bedroom window on one of the first warm mornings and breathe in that nostalgic and insanely sweet scent. 

I wonder what will be different in our lives.  So many things can happen in a year; we could welcome more babies to our family; we could lose someone we love.   We ourselves or one of us may not even be here to bear witness to the blooming. 

But today, with each branch I sheared, I felt hope for the spring to come and all the springs thereafter.