RAINDROPS ON TULIPS

Another damp and drizzly day but I decided I had to go out to clear my head - for some reason I hadn't been able to get to sleep until 3 a.m. so was too late getting up to go to church. As I was walking out of the door, I met some friends who were going to Christchurch; they offered me a lift, so as I hadn't planned anything else, I decided to go with them.

When we got there, we parted company and I walked along the High Street and saw a wonderful bed of yellow tulips and wallflowers - the perfume was amazing and I thought how beautiful the tulips looked with the raindrops on them. Several people did look at me rather quizzically - especially as I was taking photographs in the rain!

I had a lovely conversation with a couple at a bus stop, just as I was putting up my Lent Post-It. They had just missed a bus to Lymington and were debating whether to bother to wait for the next one or whether they would go and look at the model railway exhibition by the river. They were a bit miffed, but were still smiling. I guess in the scheme of things, missing a bus isn't that big an issue!

“A tulip doesn’t strive to impress anyone.
It doesn’t struggle to be different than a rose.
It doesn’t have to.
It is different.
And there’s room in the garden for every flower.
You didn’t have to struggle to make your face different than anyone else’s on earth.
It just is.
You are unique because you were created that way.
Look at little children in kindergarten.
They’re all different without trying to be.
As long as they’re unselfconsciously being themselves,
they can’t help but shine.
It’s only later, when children are taught to compete,
to strive to be better than others,
that their natural light becomes distorted.”
Marianne Williamson