Time Traveling with Wildflowers

Time Traveling with Wildflowers

I have always been interested in time travel. No one, that I am aware of, has invented the mechanism to cross chronological boundaries, so I have come up with my own methods.
My latest excursion took me along a green timeline that connects 1856 Kansas with 2013 Virginia.

As Sarah Everett walked among the early spring wildflowers in Osawatomie, Kansas in 1856, made a welcome connection to the home she left and missed in New England. She came upon springbeauty and referred to them as “old familiar friends” in a letter to her sister.

Earlier this week, camera in hand, I visited the Stone Bridge at Manassas National Battlefield, hoping to see Virginia bluebells, which I did. Moving among the almost iridescent blue-violet carpet of Mertensia virginica, I spotted the tiny Claytonia virginica, Virginia springbeauty. As I moved closer to examine them, I thought of Sarah and her walk in Kansas so many years ago.

This colorful encounter was much more interesting and meaningful than those sometimes written about in school history books. This was a green connection, from one flower enthusiast to another, across 140 years and several hundred miles.

Who says time travel isn’t possible?