Image: A Guide to the Wild Flowers (1899), illustrations by Ellis Rowan, Author Alice Lounsberry. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company.
In the blossoming of flowers, there’s a magical moment. This is that instant when it suddenly trembles awake from the perfect stillness. The beginning of music from the silence. When out of nothingness, the cells in the petals spring into action— simply because it is no longer possible to stay an unopened bud. It is at that point in time when, for the flower, it becomes far too painful to remain closed than it would be to open up into the light. We see this moment not only in flowers, but also in people— when they finally decide to unfold open, coming into a beautiful process of becoming their most beautiful self.
Thinking about spring, thinking about this long lost feeling of festivity being back in the air; thinking about fruits and flowers coming alive on trees, we are reflecting on the beautiful process of blossoming. Whether it is in a person, or a flower, it always begins with that moment where the bloom decides to emerge, and allows its true self to be out there in the light, where life and its stories happen. We think this vintage painting of wildflowers captures this process of blossoming so beautifully. It captures the beauty of flowers— such a universally familiar idea— through what is truly magical and wild about them. This is that they don’t hesitate to do the only thing that they are supposed to do— which is to bloom.
This hopeful and joyful mood of spring is what’s taking over Rithihi these days, as we embrace April— a season of newness and fresh beginnings.
