It's so true. It could happen to you. Is it possible to pull more joy out of this day? Easter without the fasting and penitence of Lent just isn't the same. I promise you that I look forward to the joyful end of it all. But, all kidding aside, it was one of those things that you did without question. You fasted because it was Lent. You began on Ash Wednesday and the culmination was on Easter Sunday. As kids, we didn't see it as a bad thing, we saw it as a challenge to do it without complaint. Perhaps because I went to a Catholic School? Perhaps because we were faithful, lest we get sent to eternal damnation, simply put, getting sent to hell. Let me tell you, as a young child, I was scared straight.

Every year, I walk down to the pond that is right across the street from me and gathered some branches that are dead or broken off from the main tree. I spray-painted them and put them in a heavy crystal vase, usually with marbles, but sometimes not. This becomes our Easter Tree. Once upon a time, I only had eggs on my tree. Year after year, the kids added different little things to it, until, it was a mix of Easter and ornaments of a different kinds. This shot had a half decorated tree. Did you know that the egg is an ancient symbol of life all over the world?

We had three days of temperatures in the freezing zone. We didn't have that cold of weather all winter and suddenly, we do. One of my cherry trees was just budding and it killed off the cherry blossoms for this year. It is kind of sad to look at, the beautiful blossoms dying before they are fully alive, never even having a chance to release the snow.

The other half of the tree bloomed today. The entire season has been a tad strange, hasn't it? Half a tree blooming? The trees are all blooming out of sync. What is going on, Mother Nature?

Leafing out. It is only a day away. Seems like overnight, everything is coming alive. Soon, everything will be bloomed and feel somewhat normal again. It could happen to you.

May there always be a flower to color my world. #alwaysaflower
And just like that, this show is over. Come back tomorrow and we'll do it again. Down below, my creeping flock is coming alive. Such a rewarding flower. If you treat it nice after it finishes blooming, it will come back and flower at the end of the season too.

All I have are my words, armed in my mind, written in pen, stand by stand. Oh, yes. Still by hand. It has a different feel. Altered not by keys, backspace, and delete, I write, erase, tear it to pieces and start all over again. And again.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost