The Elixer of Spring

My phone buzzed in my back pocket, calling me back to the present.  It was my sister, wishing me a belated happy mother’s day.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Taking pictures of flowers,” I told her.

Actually, I was sitting on the covered patio of the house I grew up in.  The heady scent of lilacs was mixing with the scent of freshly grilled hamburgers.  Dad was at the grill, adding cheese to the burgers, while Mom came out from the house carrying a bowl of potato salad and a pitcher of iced tea.

Or at least, that’s where my heart was, before the phone call.

The sweet, fresh smell of lilacs always takes me right back to the house on Hirst Street with its aging but prolific lilac trees.  The feel of the faded wooden picnic table, the clang of a basketball hoop.  Safety.  Family.

The home was sold years ago as my parents moved into a house more suitable for people in their sixties.  But some smells, and memories, you never forget.

The lilacs proudly blooming across town right now are beautiful in their own right.  But their magical abilities help me transcend time and place and take me back to those family gatherings on the patio when I could still physically wrap my arms around everyone I loved dearly in live.  That makes them hands down my favorite flower in any garden.

–Teresa