The lotus is a flower we rarely think about in our part of the world. It's an Asian water lily and almost always associated with shrines and gardens "over there." But lotuses are a spectacular addition to water gardens anywhere. If only we all had the space and the scale!
I found this one last week on vacation in Rhode Island, at a pond in North Kingstown that is so well known for its lotuses, photographers and artists come from miles around to take pictures, sketch or paint. You'll see traffic stopped. You'll see cars parked by the side of the road, and tripods and easels set up all around the pond.
Lotuses truly are traffic-stoppers. They're tough, believe me, able to survive and flourish in muddy ponds that look to be a tangled mess under water. I'm sure you've seen their dark brown, hole-filled seed pods on long, sturdy stems. These alone are worth parking the car.
But the blossoms are what people seem to love most. There's something mystical about the way the stems shoot up from their chartreuse-colored leaves and then produce the most exquisite pale pink or white blossom that seems perfectly shaped to fit within two cupped hands.
That may be where the religious significance of this flower came from. Cultures from Egypt to India and China have considered it sacred.
I'm not much for that, but you can certainly understand why people everywhere marvel at the lotus. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it from every angle.
This bud was the palest of pinks, and it was much more beautiful than the photo conveys. So beautiful, in fact, that I sat down on the grassy bank and just enjoyed it for about 15 minutes. From every angle ... up close, far away, sitting, standing. Before I knew it, my breathing was slower and deeper.
That's what vacation is for, no? The lotus seemed perfectly cast.
