Wild Flowers

Each spring brings a new blossom of wildflowers in the ditches along the highway I travel daily to work.

There is one particular blue flower that has always caught my eye. I've noticed that it blooms only in the morning hours, the afternoon sun is too warm for it. Every day for approximately two weeks, I see those beautiful flowers.

This spring, I started a wildflower garden in our yard. I can look out of the kitchen window while doing the dishes and see the flowers. I've often thought that those lovely blue flowers from the ditch would look great in that bed alongside other wildflowers. Everyday I drove past the flowers thinking, "I'll stop on my way home and dig them." "Gee, I don't want to get my good clothes dirty..." Whatever the reason, I never stopped to dig them. My husband even gave me a folding shovel one year for my trunk to be used for that expressed purpose.

One day on my way home from work, I was saddened to see that the highway department had mowed the ditches and the pretty blue flowers were gone. I thought to myself, "Way to go, you waited too long. You should have done it when you first saw them blooming this spring."

A week ago we were shocked and saddened to learn that my oldest sister-in-law has a terminal brain tumor. She is 20 years older than my husband and unfortunately, because of age and distance, we haven't been as close as we all would have liked. I couldn't help but see the connection between the pretty blue flowers and the relationship between my husband's sister and us. I do believe that God has given us some time left to plant some wonderful memories that will bloom every year for us.

And yes, if I see the blue flowers again, you can bet I'll stop and transplant them to my wildflower garden.

每年春天都會有一些野花在我每日上班的高速路旁的溝渠中盛開。

有一種獨特的藍色小花總能吸引我的目光。我注意到它只在早上的時間開放，下午的日光對它來說太溫暖了。大概有兩周的時間，我每天都能看到那些美麗的花兒。

今年春天，我在自家院子里開辟了一片野花花園。我可以在做菜的時候通過廚房的窗戶看到花兒。我常想，溝渠中那些可愛的藍色小花要是能在那塊花床上和其他野花在一起該有多好看。每天，當我開車經過那些花兒的時候我就會想，“回家的時候，我要停下來挖走一些”，“算了，我不想把我得體的衣服弄臟”……不管是什么原因，我從未停下來挖一些。有一年，我丈夫甚至在我汽車的后備箱里放了一把可折疊的鏟子，好用來完成我那已表明的目的。

有一天下班回家，我發現高速公路部門已經刈過溝渠上的草了，那些可愛的藍色花兒已無蹤影，我很傷心。我對自己說：“看你做的好事，你等了太長時間。你應該在今年春天第一次看到它們盛開的時候就挖一些的。”

一周前，得知我丈夫的大姐患晚期腦瘤，我們很震驚也很傷心。她比我丈夫大20歲，不幸的是，因為年齡和距離的關系，我們沒有像我們所希望的那樣親密。我禁不住把那些可愛的藍色小花和我們同我丈夫的姐姐之間的關系聯系起來。我確信上帝已經給我們留下了一段時間來培育一些美妙的回憶，好讓它們每年都為我們開放。

是的，如果我再次看到那些藍色的花兒，你可以相信，我會停下來把它們移植到我的野花花園里。