音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.44]Passage 74 Wild Flowers

[00:06.13]Each spring brings a new blossom of wildflowers in the ditches along the highway I travel daily to work.

[00:13.67]There is one particular blue flower that has always caught my eyes.

[00:19.47]I've noticed that it blooms only in the morning hours, the afternoon sun is too warm for it.

[00:27.57]Every day for approximately two weeks, I see those beautiful flowers.

[00:34.57]This spring, I started a wildflower garden in our yard.

[00:40.04]I can look out of the kitchen window while doing the dishes and see the flowers.

[00:46.28]I've often thought that those lovely blue flowers from the ditches

[00:51.53]would look great in that bed alongside other wildflowers.

[00:55.91]Everyday I drove past the flowers thinking, “I'll stop on my way home and dig them.”

[01:02.36]“Gee, I don't want to get my good clothes dirty...”

[01:06.71]Whatever the reason, I never stopped to dig them.

[01:10.65]My husband even gave me a folding shovel one year for my trunk to be used for that expressed purpose.

[01:19.84]One day on my way home from work,

[01:23.01]I was saddened to see that the highway department had mowed the ditches

[01:27.82]and the pretty blue flowers were gone.

[01:30.88]I thought to myself, “Way to go, you waited too long.

[01:35.15]You should have done it when you first saw them blooming this spring.”

[01:39.64]A week ago we were shocked and saddened to learn that

[01:44.89]my oldest sister-in-law has a terminal brain tumor.

[01:49.49]She is 20 years older than my husband and unfortunately,

[01:54.41]because of age and distance, we haven’t been as close as we all would have liked.

[02:00.98]I couldn’t help but see the connection between the pretty blue flowers

[02:05.69]and the relationship between my husband's sister and us.

[02:10.06]I do believe that God has given us some time left to plant some wonderful memories

[02:17.06]that will bloom every year for us.

[02:19.68]And yes, if I see the blue flowers again,

[02:23.29]you can bet I'll stop and transplant them to my wildflower garden.