Sand Lily Soliloquy

It spends most of the year hidden to our eyes. The tuberous underground root does not appear as anything on the surface until Spring sun warms the sandy soil of its subterranean womb. Tiny shoots of  green make the plant known to above ground dwellers like me, but they are hard to detect early on. Eventually a spider-like spray of slender lanceolate leaves hint at the wonder about to take place. When the delicate white flowers appear, it seems like in a flash of the eye—one moment nothing and the next a nest of white.

Sometimes I muse about the ‘little pieces of toilet paper’ dotting the landscape. Nestled in the rosette of narrow leaves are a cluster of star-like flowers whose centers are beautifully lit by its glowing yellow anthers. Sometimes called ‘star lily’ due to the six white tepals, I prefer the name ‘sand lily’ because of its most common habitat. The latin name, Leucocrinum montanum, means ‘white lily of the mounains’, although it is more often seen growing in the flatlands. It is unique because it is the only species in the genus leucocrinum.

I wonder what it thinks about being the only one. I doubt it thinks much at all. Lucky flower. Maybe it tries to symbolically remind us we are all unique and our only task is to bloom and reveal our hidden beauty to the world—then disappear. That is what this thinking being thinks. It does not matter. Thoughts have no shape or form, they appear out of nothing and then disappear. Lucky thoughts.