A dogwood tree in our backyard produced only a handful of blossoms last year. Ten days ago on Easter Sunday hundreds of nascent blossoms appeared on the tree. Today it is in full bloom. The flowers are a luscious color of deep pink with a hint of salmon.

My normal prayers are abstract, unplanned doodles, but I couldn’t resist trying to draw a dogwood blossom. After I finished the prayer I remembered the legend of the dogwood tree and its flower. The four-petaled flower often looks like a cross with indentations or holes at the tip of each blossom. The holes represent the imprint of the nails; the reddish/brown coloring next to the holes symbolizes Jesus’s Blood. In the center of the flower, the green buds look like a crown of thorns.  I guess the shape was an appropriate choice for an Eastertide prayer!