JOY ALONG THE WAY: WHER EVER THEY BE, KEEP CHANNELS OF ENERGY OPEN

I forget all about the sweet locust tree during the year when it is not in bloom, but comes a morning in May, I step outside and, oh, the heavenly odor! Immediately I know what has happened.

The tree isn't mine, and not readily visible from my daily viewpoints, otherwise I would have been watching the development of the blossoms and anticipating the perfume. But, like a surprise that has come in the night, there is the full-blown gift of the fragrance all at once. I can go to a certain place in my yard and see the lofty tree soaring above the neighboring maples, a mass of creamy white blossoms against an azure sky.

A morning breeze lifts the pendants of blossoms gently up and down and it seems the whole tree is crying out to be recognized in this its moment of glory. "I see you," I say appreciatively, knowing full well that this huge tree has no such desire for appreciation from me. Or does it? Don't plants respond to the gardener who loves them? Is some intangible energy transmitted to the plant, back to the person, back to the plant, etc. There is some quasi-scientific theory that says there is.

Sometimes is seems to me that everything in the universe, at some time, is crying out, "Look at me!" The sand dollar says, "How about that little flower design that is always on my side? Isn't that something?" The flicker says, "Have you noticed that little patch of red feathers atop my head? Always there, aren't they?" I can even put words in the mouth of the garden snake, "Ever see stripes like mine?"

How, sad, poet Gray says, is the flower that blooms and is never seen, that wastes its fragrance on the desert air. Since no one has seen such a flower, we cannot say that it might have been even prettier if there had been someone to transmit care and appreciation.

If the things of Nature cry out for attention, how much more so do humans. If a person hones, practices and preens himself in some field of endeavor, there is a deep-seated desire to be noticed, appreciated, loved. If it isn't given, disaster stalks in the form of withdrawal, bitterness, violence or some other such undesirable characteristics. The intangible flow of energy, as from the aforementioned plant lover to the plant back to the plant lover, has been short-circuited, only this is from person to person back to person.

We must see that this is a two-way street, allow others their own self-expression, appreciate it, notice it, say so.

I once had a blue organdy dress. Oh, the many little rolled-hemmed ruffles! The sash, the bow! There were new patent leather shoes, new stockings, a new hair ribbon. Like the sweet locust tree that shouts out all at once for attention, I planned and preened and primped and presented myself in all this newness at a party. No one noticed. I went home and cried. "What did the other girls wear?" Mama asked. "I never noticed," was my reply. "Well, then ..." Mama said.

I couldn't appreciate her "Well then," then. But I've come to use that expression a lot, mostly directed at myself if I feel a short circuit in the universal interchange of energy and love.

REJOICE!

~Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime columnist for the Southeast Missourian.