Early in the morning, while the dew was still on the vegetation and the sun was visible, after having walked about a mile into the woods, my spirit was delightfully lifted by a sweet scent that filled the air.

Before I could see what had produced the sweet fragrances that greeted me I knew there had to be honeysuckles nearby. Advancing not many paces ahead I saw bell-shaped white and yellow flowers that beautifully adorned the top of green bushes beckoning to me.

I stood still as I inhaled deeply the drifting fragrances, envisioned hummingbirds sipping nectar and honey bees buszzing that I was so familair with during my boyhood when I assisted my part-time beekeeping father tend the thirty-odd hives of bees we owned.

I could not, nor did I want to, forego the opportunity to act on my natural urge to break off stems of several honeysuckles and taste the powerful sweet aroma and like the hummingbird sip their nectar. Celebrating those moments I said, "Yummy, yummy yummy!" Then I saw two squirrels and several birds and, like myself, they were celebrating. 

Grace and honeysuckles seem so much alike. They are both serendipitous gifts. Today, I am graced by honeysuckles.

My concupiscence forbids me from hurryingly leaving this gratifying encounter that I am certain to savor for a long time, long after my eyes can see or my nostrils can smell these honeysuckles which produced what I have determined to be one of the top ten aromas on this side of Heaven.

Before taking my last tactile breath from these honeysuckles I offer a prayer of gratitude to the Creator of both the honeysuckles and me.

I have a strange, maybe, not so strange, feeling that the honeysuckles and I are one. I will meditate upon that thought.

Copyright 2009 by Uriah J. Fields