Peonies In the Cryofreeze of Covid

The air has chilled, and my neighbor’s woodsmoke signals the beginnings of fall. My favorite season since I was a child, autumn brings all the joyful memories of school starting, trick or treating, and cozy camping nights bookended with s’ mores. The only problem is, my brain still feels like it’s spring! My physical body acknowledges that is it fall, but my mind has not yet caught up. I, along with everyone else who has been quarantined since March, have been conditioned for six months not to acknowledge the passing of time. Because if we recognize that lost time, it’s hard. It’s time. Time of our lives. Time we won’t get back. Things that have been canceled. Events that will no longer happen. Trips that remain to be rescheduled. My brain doesn’t seem to want to think about the possibility that this time has gone by…and what? What can we all show for that time that we’ve lost?

But, as happens every single year to me, I feel awakened by the autumn, by the cool weather quenching my thirst for crisp air. I can think again, without the heavy humidity of summer pressing down, and I can be once again in my favorite cozy slippers with a hot cup of tea and a kitten on my lap. So now that I feel alive once more, awoken from my cryo-sleep that began in March, I am ready to take my time back. COVID might have taken many things from us all, but I am loathe to let it take anything else.

So here I am, with photos I took of peonies this spring, finally sharing them with you today. I hope they remind you of the renewal that comes with the birth and death of the flowers, the impermanence of time, and the cycle of life that we can look forward to year after year. These photos make me think of the drama of light vs. dark, good and evil, and the challenges we all face within ourselves and the world during this time.

I hope they bring you a little bit of beauty to an otherwise difficult year. See all my photographs below!