Today I am grateful for azaleas. Azaleas are special to me for a couple of reasons. First, when I first came to Gainesville, oh so many moons ago, it was the first time I had ever seen azaleas. Heck, that first winter here was the first real winter I had ever seen. See, I grew up in south Florida and the only thing that changed between summer and winter was about 15 degrees. It never really got cold and there certainly weren't dormant plants and trees. Stuff may have not bloomed during the "winter", but the landscape didn't get desolate in south Florida - grass didn't freeze, things weren't all brown - you get the idea... Really, I was convinced that the only difference between summer and winter in south Florida was the number of snowbirds you could count.
Well my first winter in northern Florida was quite a shock for me. I had never seen such brown-ness - sticks, twigs, empty branches, dead grass - the works. I remember the first azalea I saw bloom - it was amazing. I was sure that nothing and I mean nothing had been there the week before - certainly not this amazing bush completely covered in flowers. I think that's my favorite thing about azaleas - even if you don't know they're there, they are going to surprise you. They can look like twigs and suddenly and majestically they transform overnight.
When we bought the house we're in now, there were two azalea bushes in the backyard. The owner was going to have one removed before we moved in because it looked damaged. Obviously, it has been damaged (run over by a lawn mower, dug up by a dog, struck by lightening... something). I asked her to leave it. It is my favorite bush in the whole yard. Most of the year it looks like 4 twigs and occasionally has a few leaves, but come spring, it's magnificent. It takes my breath away to look at it. It looks great now! In a few months, it'll return to is less ostentatious self, but right now it's in all of its glory.
Second, I had a friend in college who insisted that azaleas looked good in our hair. We must have put one our hair each day that first spring. I had a Policial Science teacher that semester that thought I was quite mad showing up to class with one in my hair. Ahh.. to be carefree again.
Azaleas remind me to smile, to stop and remember to have fun. So, go pick one and put it in your hair if you choose, or if that's too much, trim one and put it in a vase on your desk, I promise, that beauty will make you smile, too.
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