When we bought our home in Kennebunk, 16 years ago, I went to the Dollar Store in Wells, and bought a few plants for the yard. I paid $1.00 for a little stick with a few roots, about 1/2 inch through at its thickest, more dead than alive, and brought it home and planted it near the stump of what had clearly been a very large pine tree. My wife made some attempt to keep it pruned over the years, but today the trunk is 14 inches through and it stands taller then the peak of the roof of our story-and-a-half home. Each year it throws more blossoms: delicate and beautiful. Each year I look at it and remember that hopeless stick I rescued from a pile at the Dollar Store…and marvel that it has turned into this majestic tree that showers us with blossoms as the Creator showers us with blessings. Since the height of its bloom is always around Mother’s Day, it serves as a celebration of our time in our home, and of the woman who makes it one, my wife Carol. Happy Mother’s Day.

And that is really all the Sunday thought I have…and all I need. Thank you God, for this life we live together, for our children, for our home, for the absolute blessing and miracle of Cherry blossoms from a half dead stick. Who would have believed?

Nikon Coolpix P500. Processed for clarity and sharpness in Lightroom.

Happy Sunday. Happy Mother’s Day.