Each Spring the front lawn at Spirit Fire Meditative Retreat Center would erupt in color. It would begin as the snow at the edges of the flower beds would give-way. Ah, crocuses.

Next, would be the daffodils. Singular yellow blossoms on strong green periscopes. Their presence was the gift of Nancy from Cambridge, over a hundred bulbs, which several of us planted during a weekend retreat-class. Generosity and shovel-fun.

Then the violets. White with lilac faces, violet violets with yellow or white dots at the center. One understood immediately how the color violet got its name.

Each arrival was more abundant. Scattered crocuses peeping out from under the melting edges of snow; then daffodils more in number but still singular in stature, almost like little trees; then the violets would carpet the entire front lawn. The lawn rolled like the highlands of which Spirit Fire was a part, so the violets rolled, too. Undulating beauty every Spring.

With this meditation, we ‘be with’ the intimacy of beauty.