Chocolate Lilies

I love Chocolate Lilies. Don't assume this makes me a plant person and start telling me about flowers and such. I'm not and I'm not listening. Sorry. I try. But it's like birds. I once made the mistake of commenting at a park in Ohio how beautiful the song birds were and the guide gave me a CD of 101 birdsongs. It was very sweet and I feel guilty to this day for not caring.

But a Chocolate Lily is the essence of my being. They are delicate and sweet swaying gently in the breeze. The name offers promises of pure goodness and beauty. Just like me, right?

I wish blogs had a scratch and sniff possibility. Because it is the scent of the Chocolate Lily that makes them so precious. 

They smell like dog poop.

And someday when I grow up I won't tell every guest we walk with how amazing they smell so I can laugh at their disgust. 

They are gross. 

It seems slightly cruel that something named Chocolate Lily makes you gag when you put it anywhere near your face.

But, what makes Chocolate Lilies a bit more fabulous besides the tension of their name and their putrid smell is their edibility. Don't eat the flower. You don't want it too close to you, but if you dig up the plant there is a ball of what looks like rice. This can be eaten raw or cooked to sustain you for a good long time.

So, you have a plant with a delectable name, nasty scent, and life sustaining capacity. What is there not to love?

When I look, taste, and smell them I can't help but think of Simul Justus et Peccator. I'm sure that jumped to your brain also. It's one of Luther's slogans, "Simultaneously justified and sinning." Or Saint and Sinner. 

We always live in the tension of the beautiful and the odoriferous; the edifying and repulsing. 

I find when I get busy, I forget about this tension and fall deeply into my nastiness or my supremacy. I begin to think how much easier everything would be if folks would operate in this world the way I want them to. I end up in that place either out of bitterness or arrogance. It's funny that they both end in the same pit.

Shooting Star. Also a cool flower.

I need my walks in the woods, my prayers, and my quiet time because that's where I observe the Chocolate Lily. That's where I gag as I walk through a field of them and remember simul justus et peccator. That's where I get to rest always living in grace.