Lilacs, and other sporadically beautiful things

Hello Everyone,

I dislike the saying 'without valleys, there are no peaks'. I like the sentiment that one appreciates the mountain tops more if you've been in the valleys, but I don't like the idea that every valley necessarily has a corresponding mountain top. Some tragedies have no redeeming value. But if we focus on the former idea, that of appreciating the good times when you've been through the bad, one might say something like 'the view is better when you climbed the mountain yourself.' Or, in my case, the lilacs smell better when you bike in the winter. Now, I don't dislike biking in the winter, but it can be a slog. A warm sunny day in the Spring is clearly ideal, which is why the bike path is usually crowded on such days. I can't blame so many people wanting to be out on a day like that, it's beautiful. But as I've said before, there is no such crowding on a cold winter day.

This is the time of year when the lilacs bushes bloom, and my path to work includes several large lilacs bushes. It's a very short period, but for these few days, those bushes look and smell amazing. A friend of mine ripped out a large lilac plant from a house he bought to renovate and flip. He said they take up a lot of space and are only nice for a week a year. He had a point, the plants do grow quite big, and if you have limited yard space, it might not be ideal. And it's true, they only bloom for a short period. But during that time, there are few plants like them. Some things are annoying and time consuming and their benefits are short-lived. I can remember once sitting in a canoe in a lake in Algonquin Park. Camping can be a hassle. Getting to your site, setting up, dealing with bugs and bear proofing and everything else. But to see the Milky Way, without light pollution, there is no other way.

Those lilacs probably look and smell amazing to people who don't bike in the winter, but I like to console myself with the idea that slogging through winter biking gives me a slightly better appreciation of them.