Daffodils as a life force

Boosting up this spring

It’s like when you’re playing a video game and an animated almost drained battery in the upper right corner of the screen indicates you’re near death. If you don’t find extra health, you’re headed for the digital graveyard. Game over. Try again.

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

This is how I feel near the end of winter, on my last legs, waiting for the warmer weather and green shoots to appear from the earth.

Daffodil season

At lunch the other day, someone asked me how I was doing, and I answered that I was doing better because I’d spent more time recently enjoying daffodils. I was worried the season was going to be over before I had time to fully appreciate them. “Daffodils are like a life force for me,” I said.

Sometimes I forget the company I keep, and after I’d said it, I felt silly for commenting to a group of college faculty and staff, who are all shouldering a lot of responsibility, that my current concern was not spending enough time with flowers to feel spiritually fulfilled for the coming year.

2025 Highlights

I didn’t make it everywhere I hoped to go this year to see daffodils. There’s an amazing display at a shopping plaza near me that I drove by but didn’t stop to see. I thought about taking a day trip to a daffodil and tulip festival but didn’t make it.

I did enjoy the three different varieties of daffodil that bloomed in our yard (it’s our first spring in the house), I ran in a Daffodil 5K that raised money for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and I kicked off the season with the incredible Spring Bulb Show at Smith College:

Below, find some of my favorite daffodils photographs taken this year. These will hopefully keep me powered up until next spring when the daffodils return.

2025 Daffodil Photographs

What is your life force?

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