How did I miss the flowers?

Every day I walk past this hallowed portal of Concrete infamously called L^2 in the institute. Depending on the day of the week, the number of walk-pasts could be greater than 10 with a minimum of atleast 6 even on a dull boring day on campus. Apart from being surrounded by 3 blocks of concrete and granite, there is a big tree at one side of the "Pub Floor" of the institute(another name for L^2). No one pays any attention to the tree itself; it probabaly sits there smirking at all the busyboides running around it through the year carrying in them a plethora of emotions hidden to everyone including sometimes even themselves. A totally disjointed community member it is; apart from probably being the oldest.
Leaving the tree apart and coming to yours truly, I probably glanced at this tree 6 months back and never gave it another glance through this period - I am an ant scurrying upto collect my portion of "food" and hoard enough "food" without knowing the definition of enough. I am certainly not the busiest ant and despite my best attempts may be dont even have the largest hoard. I quite did not realise that this new found activity had taken over me; defining what I saw ; what I heard and maybe even what I felt.
On a lovely spring morning in Bangalore walking through L^2, my brain broke away from the shackles of anthood and dared to look up at the branches lying above my head. And Lo! what a sight to behold. In place of a green cover, there was a yellow covering of the tree resplendent; unadultered in its beauty. I didnt know how old the flowers were, the base of the tree was bathed in yellow indicating that the tree had already shed some of its own and given birth to new ones. I could not help sitting down and watching the tree but for a couple of minutes; it reproduced some old memories - my thirst to photograph every beautiful flower with my Nikon, now lost to my anthood; my drive down the Garden State of New Jersey and Scenic Virginia State duing American Fall, a visual treat I can never forget and may be unfortunate enough to never set my eyes on again; the flora in the heavenly Valley of flowers as seen in a Calendar hanging in my house.
Why did I feel all this watching a tree I dont know nor will I ever know. Maybe it was a spontaneous reaction of feeling the freedom I had taken for granted 6 months back and lost it somewhere along the path or was it a genuine reaction on seeing such a lovely thing that all equally lovely things in life came rushing back to me. How did I miss seeing the tree evolve? A mystery it will remain but it leaves me sad that in my quest for material glory, I am missing some of the finest displays put on by nature; priceless treasures they are to me. But, the tree is more forgiving than opportunity for I am sure it will come back knocking once again next year in all its royalty.
On an ending note, I was curious if I was the only one who had missed it. Today provided me the answer. Walking through L^2 on my usual sojourns, I caught atleast 4 people who were staring wide-eyed at the tree and clicking snaps.