It is September and my mind turns to Spider Lilies, those beautiful botanical plants. When I was in third grade at Deepstep school, Melba Faye Giles brought Spider Lilies to class every day the first week of school. I thought they were beautiful—the Spider Lilies. Melba Faye’s beauty took my breath away—which is why I have such a vivid memory of September and those spectacular lilies. I could remember to breathe if I looked at the lilies instead of gazing at her.
Melba Fay’s mother had a beautiful flower garden in their front yard, enclosed in a white picket fence. Our school bus passed it every day on the way to school. Although it was very pretty, those Spider Lilies gracing Miss Mary Lizzie’s desk; The first week of September, they gave a special spirit to that otherwise ordinary rural classroom.
Therefore, every September, if I see Spider Lilies, they cheer me. Fond memories add a special spice to ordinary days. People that grow and tend plants such as Spider Lilies add joy, beauty, and—health to our lives. Both my grandmothers, Veal and Moore, were such people. Since I grew up a stone’s throw from grandmother Veal’s house. I could often be found outside watering her dahlias, forsythia and petunias. I believe she could make a plain wooden stick grow and blossom.
I once lived in a town where the hospital board planned to landscape the grounds, The plan was to beautify it for ambulatory patients and families to stroll, enjoying the out of doors. A county commissioner almost killed the plan, complaining that it wastes money. He wanted to keep the grounds around the hospital plain, and only spend money to cut weeds. Thankfully, the project was completed, adding pleasure for patients, families, workers and passers by.
Earlier today, before starting to write this, I was sitting at the edge of my daughter Jennifer ‘s beautiful flower garden. Bees and butterflies gently flitted among little blossoms. It was nature’s joyful display of beauty. With school getting underway, maybe that’s why memories of spider lilies came pouring into my thinking.
Beauty matters to the human soul, and natural beauty surrounds us. I recall a church I was assigned to. It was plain, cookie-cutter, yet lovely. When I discovered that flowers on the altar were fake, I prevailed upon the Altar Guild never to use fake flowers. I said, “If we cannot afford fresh flowers, or no-one donates them, then leave the altar plain.” From then on there were fresh flowers adorning the altar. I may have over reached, and said it offends God.
Ray Stevens’ hit song, Everything is Beautiful underscores the reality that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Botanists will point out that …A weed is (simply) a plant that is considered undesirable in a given situation. Weeds can be plants that are difficult to control, hazardous, or aesthetically unappealing. They can grow in places that conflict with human needs, goals, or preferences. The ancient writer said, God looked on all that was made and said, “That’s good!”
©Copyright Willis H. Moore 2024