This image is like an icon to me— an image through which I experience the wonder, beauty, glory and relentlessly ongoing creativity of God. This one, a gift from a daughter, was born at Christmas and with a little water, affectionate gazes, stakes to sturdy and steady it, this beauty should it feel floppy, it has already grown to four feet and has three blooms all on top. The little one at the bottom fell off the stalk but we placed her back into the soil, because you never know what can happen. Also, there are a few eager ladybugs burrowing about in the fertile soil. They are the eagerly beloved—like us.
Amaryllis belladonna is a bulbous plant, native to South Africa. She got her name from the shepherdess in the poet Virgil’s pastoral Eclogues, from the Greek word amarysso, to “sparkle” and “amarella” for the bitterness of the bulb. All honest people know that bitterness and beautiful sparkle coexist within life’s vulnerability. Belladonna, beautiful lady, is also a chemical used in medicine as atropine, a muscle relaxant, too much of which is paralytic.
Our work is to notice the Beauty and find ways to manage the bitterness. Talking to others who listen with love helps a lot, sometimes more than medicines. I use both.
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