This Magic Moment

Friday night, our family went for our regular evening walk. We wore the girls out, and we enjoyed the cool air. We returned home, walking up our lane in the dark. To reach our home, we walk straight toward the doorway of the small apartment block pictured above and below. The photo below shows our house, as the grey building on the left. Generally, on our walks we turn in at the house. We walk through our small garden and rather asocially enter our home.


But on Friday night, the girls waved at the crowd gathered on the steps. They may not have expected any reply, but the gathering of neighbors waved us over. Lai, lai, lai. Come, come, come. The magic must have already entered the air, for the girls followed the simple beckoning. They felt no fear of our Chinese speaking neighbors. They walked through the darkness to the brightly illuminated doorway, where everyone sat gathered around a large potted plant. It was lovely, with large white blooms dropping beautifully.

Most of our neighbors speak no English. We speak a pitiful amount of Mandarin. We heard the word piao liang tossed about frequently in the conversation. Piao liang means beautiful, and often refers to our girls. But we soon realized that they were speaking about the plant as well as the girls. They were right - it was piao liang. Someone pulled off one of the large blossoms and handed it to Lilly. She accepted with a polite xie xie. Thank-you. As we mingled with our Chinese neighbors, another young man joined the crowd. He spoke English and explained that this flower - tan in Chinese - only blooms for 30 minutes, one evening a year. The flower became even more piao liang with such rarity.

I came back home and googled the tan flower. He had spoken the truth. Genus epiphyllum, the broad-leaved epiphyllum bears large, strongly fragrant flowers that bloom for a single night only. And the Mandarin name of the flower is also a Chinese saying. tan hua yi xian means a flower that blooms briefly.