Remembrance is a form of meeting. Khalil Gibran

I was sitting on the steps in the backyard, catching some sunshine while I ate my lunch the other day. I noticed the flowers were blooming again for another year on the Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday plant, named so as the flowers change colour while in bloom, as the days progress.

We were given this tiny plant in a pot when we moved in from friends (parents of friends) and we planted it and it's enormous. Those friends are now dead, but I thought how lovely it was to be reminded of them each year. When the plant blooms, I always think about some of our lovely times together. It keeps them front of mind. As Thomas Campbell said "To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." 

Next to this plant is a Japanese Maple, given to us by my parents who went to a wedding and were told to plant a tree rather than give a gift. My dad has since died, and I realised I had a little corner of the garden which is full of memorial plants, so to speak.

There is also a bougainvillea from my sister and while she is alive, in time, it may also become one. Out the front we have gardenias from my sister in law. 

None of these plants were given as something to remember them by, it's just what they become as they flourish over years.

I guess it's a reason to give people plants. Sturdy plants that will survive with little care. Like the relationships they represent - just loved and tended from time to time, not work or difficult, which over the years adds up to a lot.

"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of  us". Helen Keller.

Linking with #TalkaboutitTuesday #SeniorSalonPitstop #NaturesNotes and a strange one for #HappyNow because while it is about loss, it did make me happy to look around and remember some wonderful times and feel a closeness to those people now gone.