You WILL Miss It. Friday Faves and Feels #8

I don’t want to be mello-dramatic on this. But if you don’t take me up on my recommendation quickly, you’ll miss it. You’ll likely have another opportunity, but it’ll be a year or so. Here it is:

Look around.

Particularly if you live north of where I do in Maryland, USA. Because if you live around me or south of me, you’ve probably missed your chance.

For the past few weeks I’ve been a hazard on the roads. I haven’t really been paying attention to where I’ve been going, because I’ve been looking at all the colors of early spring.

We were driving on a road not far from our home when I spotted the property in the picture above. I turned around, pulled my truck over, apologized to my wife for the stop, and took some pictures. I’m sure it looked creepy, and as I stood in the middle of the yard across the street, I was most certainly trespassing.

But I couldn’t help myself.

The colors were amazing. It was a cloudy day, so the sun wasn’t bleaching out the colors. The way the various pastel-pinks of cherry blossoms, or whites of the same, the many different pastel-like shades of light-green, juxta positioned with the deep green evergreens, fresh and not-yet-faded-from-the-heat grass, the deep burgundy of the Japanese Maples…

Oh my, God. Well done. I’m here for it.

As I was capturing the photos a person stepped out of the house to get the morning paper from the end of the driveway.

I didn’t even know getting papers was still a thing.

Anyway, I approached her to tell her why I was taking photos of her property.

“Your trees are really popping!” I beamed, apparently startling her.

“Wha…what?” She asked, confused.

“I was just saying your property looks fantastic! The color of the trees is so crisp!”

On board with me now, she said, “Oh! Thank you!” And then, “I hadn’t noticed.”

She hadn’t noticed.

People… go notice.

This is the time of year when our world comes alive. I like to think of it as an invitation. Nature kind of showing off for us. You know, like when you’re having company so you tidy things up, and perhaps put flowers in a prominent place in your home to help beautify it. Or the way you plant flowers in your front garden.

Nature does this every year. It welcomes us not in, but out. We’ve been packed into our homes for the cold months.

Get out. Enjoy the beauty before it’s faded by the heat.

And maybe take someone with you.