Purple Iris, the Silver Lining

I love irises. 
They bring the purple into spring every April.

Here are a few of mine that bring such joy each year. They are beautiful and I love them, but they don't really have a story.  The one in the painting has a story worth telling.

We moved into our new home the week of September 11, 2001. (Yeah, that September 11...) It was a busy time.  The country was reeling from the events of the week, the school year had just begun, and we were setting up our forever home.
A friend told me she was thinning her iris bed and asked if I'd like to have some for our new yard.  Um... YES!  Like I would ever turn that offer down!
Like I said, it was a busy time of getting settled, and building a flower bed wasn't high on the list of priorities.  But we had this great little hillside just down the drive. (I painted this little hillside earlier this year.)  I could just imagine this hillside covered with irises, so I poked the bulbs into the ground all over the hillside and waited... The next spring their light green flags were tall and beautiful... but not a single flower.  That's okay, it takes a year for them to get really grounded, so I waited... another year... and another... and another... Lots of green flags... zero flowers... ever...
Now, friends, look at the painting of the hillside, what do you see?  
Lots of trees... too much shade... not enough sun for irises to bloom... ever...

Fast forward... 8 years... 
Every one who has who lived in Northwest Arkansas for a long time will remember the winter of 2009... the ice storm of the century... branches breaking through the night with gunshot-like cracks, treetops splintered, no power for 8 days... devastation everywhere... 

So much clean up...  a mission team from a Baptist church in another county, men we didn't know, just showed up with their chainsaws... just came to help... so humbling...

Then the weather warmed... spring arrived... April came... and... 
     Surprise...
          Surprise...
               Surprise...
The irises on the hillside bloomed for the first time ever!
How could that be?
All those toppled trees and broken limbs... let the sunshine in...

...a silver lining... 

Do you have a "silver lining" story?  Share!!

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas

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