Looking For Tulips

I took a spin around the yard in the rain this morning, hoping against hope that I'd find a tulip.  I did see that the bleeding heart continues to bloom~

The lilies of the valley are the loveliest they've ever been, but no tulips are blooming in that bed~

There is a pink lady slipper blooming among the phlox, but no tulips~

 

 

The first iris is blooming, with the promise of more to come, but no tulips~

The three holly bushes we transplanted from my daughter's yard are doing well, but the tulips over there aren't blooming either~

Last year this time I had dozens of tulips in bloom.  This year I will have to be happy with the hundreds of tulips we enjoyed last weekend at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay.  It was the earliest in the season we've been to the Gardens, and it my daughter's first visit ever.  The bonus was that Maine residents get free admission on Memorial Day Weekend.  The tulips were gorgeous~

We went late in the day once the crowds had thinned out.  It was sunny and breezy and lovely.  Ken went for a hike along the Back River and met us back at the Visitor Center as the park was closing.  Perfect timing as there were no lines to exit~

Note to self:  next year look for tulips in Boothbay~

Perspective Is Everything

Two weeks ago I saw the movie While We're Young.  It looked like fun and I wanted to see Naomi Watts in her latest role.  I enjoyed her performances in Birdman, as an actress, and St. Vincent, as a Russian stripper.  In this current release she and Ben Stiller play a 40-something married couple, Cornelia and Josh, dealing with the shift in their friendships as their friends have babies.  Cornelia and Josh are befriended by a younger couple that introduces them to new experiences, and in the beginning they find it exciting and fun.  Then the reality of what the younger couple is really after sets in, and Cornelia and Josh take a hard look at where they are in their lives, what they value, and what they really want.

It's this last part that made the movie for me.  I've been thinking about it for two weeks.  The message, for me, is that our experiences make us who we are and we continue to evolve as long as we choose to.  At every age we question where we've been and what's next.  At any age we can learn more and change course if that makes sense.

I feel unfinished, and that is okay with me.  I don't know what's next, and I have decided that is my new normal.  That's hard to explain to people who make plans and follow through.  My plans haven't worked out, so I either need to be okay with that and move on, or give up.  I haven't given up.

Reflections on this movie have shone a new light on how I can feel about where I am in life.

My new motto is, "While I'm young."  With that in mind, there isn't anything I can't do.