Irises Are Everywhere

My Grandmother's Irises

April is a tough month. It makes me sentimental and homesick and some days it makes me downright meloncholy. I do what I can to stay on the bright side of April. Keeping busy helps, which is why I spent the first two weeks of the month redecorating my living room and kitchen. There's nothing like a couple of gallons of paint and large expanses of yet-to-be-painted walls to chase the blues away. The last few days have been tough though. I was waylayed by a rogue tooth infection and after spending several days laying on my couch in unbearable pain, my mood was sour. My spirits were brightened somewhat when Joel brought the mail in on Saturday afternoon and handed me a birthday card. I've always loved birthday cards (and no, this is not a plea for people to send me birthday cards, I'm just explaining my lifelong love of them). When I opened the card however, I was surprised to see that the person who sent it had neglected to sign it. There was just a blank card inside the envelope. I realize that it could have been an oversight on the part of the sender, but the thing is, it doesn't feel like an oversight - it feels kind of personal (not vindictive personal, more like "I don't care enough to make sure this card is signed before mailing it to you and sending this card is the absolute least gesture I can make anyway"). My initial reaction was to get angry - really angry. The whole thing made me so angry, in fact, that I managed to get up off the couch for the first time in two days and start cleaning the living room (because thanks to my Irish temperment, anger trumps pain any day of the week). When the anger wore off and the pain set back in, me and my favorite icepack returned to the couch and tried to think of appropriate ways to respond. An email? A phonecall? A blank "thank you" note sent in reply? What I finally came up with was to just let it go - all of it. This "letting it go" includes both not responding to the card and deciding that I'm no longer going to invest any time to maintaining this relationship. The charade of acting like everything's alright when this person is around (which isn't much, so there's that) over the last few years has been physically exhausting and mentally draining and no matter what the situation, it seems like I always end up looking like the bad guy. So, enough is enough. I am done with it. And free! So, what does any of this have to do with Irises? I don't know. Have I mentioned my tooth pain? Have I mentioned the large volume of pain killers I've been taking? My thoughts aren't all connecting cohesively tonight. What I do know is that the whole month of April and birthday cards in general and the sight of irises everywhere make me think of my grandmother and our shared birthday. My grandmother's yard was full of beautiful old-fashioned irises and they were always blooming in April. As I've driven around Nashville the last few weeks I've noticed that there are Irises blooming all over the place and even though my grandmother isn't here to celebrate our birthday this year and even though I can't drive out to the country to see her irises blooming for myself, I'm enjoying seeing these happy reminders of her all over town.

Irises in the Kitchen

Irises About Town

Irises in the Neighborhood