Enjoying Someone Else's Beauty

My husband looked out our back window and saw our neighbor's Plumeria Tree in full bloom. "Her flowers are really beautiful," he noted. I knew in my heart they were.It's hard to miss it, even from 100 feet away. The pink flowers light up the dull green backyard like a nightlight.

I've been enjoying them for several days, but when he mentioned it, I felt a twinge of jealousy. I had been thinking of planting a Plumeria in our front yard several weeks ago, but the earth is too hard because the tree that was there still has a stump and roots. But after seeing hers, my desire to have one increased. Why should she have the pretty flowers and not me?

It's just a scrawny tree now, but it
will be more beautiful each year.

Then my mind went back to a sermon that I heard years ago. I don't remember most sermons, but this really stuck with me. Our pastor said that we don't have to possess things to enjoy them. It is such a simple truth, but something that I struggle with, especially in the area of horticulture.

At the time, I was living in Pennsylvania and the trees were vastly different than what I grew up with in Florida. The fall colors were spectacular, and I wanted tree one of every autumn shade in my yard. The orange ones were my favorite, and I deeply wished for an oak or maple to make my heart happy. It was all very impractical since we had a standard size lot that already had a good size tree on it.

But after hearing the sermon, my focus changed. I didn't have to own trees in a varitety of vibrant colors to enjoy them. All I needed to do was to drive around town in October!

That nugget of wisdom has stayed with me for all these years, and once again, I'm putting it into practice. My neighbors tree is stunning. She's done a good job caring for it.

And here's the really funny part. She can't see it too well from her house. It's in a corner of the yard that's blocked by a room addition and it's probably visible from just a certain spot in that room. But for me, I see it anytime I'm in my kitchen or dining room. And funnier still in the fact that where I wanted to put a Plumeria in my yard, it wouldn't be visible at all from inside our house.

So I guess my pastor was right. You don't have to possess to enjoy the beauty around you.