Day 66: Overcoming Wistfulness With Wistaria

As both the first day of spring and my book deadline loom ever closer, I find myself getting a bit melancholy over the lack of time I have to do many of the things I like to do when spring comes. I am so close to being done, the chapter drafts are done and now we are editing and getting our images (the thing that stresses me even more than the writing) so there is light at the end of the tunnel. And, working on a book is temporary, it will be over with soon.

Still, I found myself having a little pity party today when I was thinking about the list of things I want to do but can't now. So, when I went for my walk at Wilson Park today (and to shop at the Torrance Certified Farmers' Market) I unexpectedly got today's lesson as I walked by the Wistaria vine (also spelled Wisteria) and found it blooming.

While I may not be able to trek to the Sierra Madre Wistaria Festival to see the incredible vine there, I was reminded that even though there are some things I can't do now because they are too far or take too long, sometimes you can find just what you are looking for in your own backyard. You just have to take the time to appreciate the beauty around you.

The more aware I become, and really stop to notice the things around me, it astonishes me how much beauty there is in the places that I regularly go. I know I live in an incredibly beautiful place, near the ocean and the Peninsula and I know how beautiful they are. But, I am talking about places that you don't normally think will be that way. I must have passed by that vine at least a dozen times in the past couple of weeks but I never stopped to look at it. It makes me wonder how many other things I miss by not taking the time to really look at them. 

Wisteria/Wistaria Vine at Wilson Park