Bluebells and Birdsong
When we walk as on hallowed ground we find freedom and the power to dream, to vision and make manifest.
Dear Hearts
As I said in my most recent letter, the Bluebell’s Latin name is Hyacinthoides Non-Scripta. This is in comparison to Hyacinth referring to the ancient Apollo myth. The sun god Apollo is grieved and cries over a flower. His tears form the letters AIAI meaning “alas” on the petals. These letters mark the flower which is appropriately named after Hyacinthus. The legendary marks distinguish Hyacinth from unmarked Bluebell. The Hyacinth is Hyacinthus Orientalis and while Bluebells are ‘Non-Scripta’ as in unmarked or unlettered.
Unwritten, Bluebell is a free spirit.
When we go free of our stories we are without script. Life is unwritten and spreads out a carpet of flowers.
I feel such an affinity with these little plants who spend so much of their year underground but who arise so poetically each April, my birth month. In some places, such as the woodland where I grew up, they have become much fewer in number such is peoples’ willingness to go trampling the woods without thought. Creating numerous new paths where soil compaction means no flowers, just bare earth. I cannot bear to see it. It …. hurts my heart. Children go around picking not just a few of these precious flowers but armfuls, often long with white at the base of the stems. They have pulled not picked them. This damages the bulbs. Although it is actually illegal to pick them it is of course tempting for children to take a few home, but the stalk should be snapped, not pulled.
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