People from a planet without flowers would think
we must be mad with joy the whole time
to have such things about us.
-Iris Murdoch
There really are few things in this world that are more amazing and more beautiful than flowers. Not that it's a competition--flowers don't care that they're more graceful and beautiful than other things--but when we think about things with which we can fill our lives that will make our lives richer, flowers have to be high on the list that we come up with. Right now, it's spring up here in the northern hemisphere, so we're being treated to a steady feast--visual and olfactory--of the wonder of flowers. They really do enrich our lives if we allow them to, for they give us something to marvel at and to appreciate; it's almost impossible to look closely at a flower without feeling a sense of wonder at just how it's put together, just how it's made to be such a remarkable thing. And flowers, of course, have no ego that we know of. They don't compare themselves to other flowers, and they don't feel themselves superior if they're bigger or more colorful or more fragrant than their neighbors. They're a wonderful model of living for us--they just are, and they don't try to be anything else. They are beautiful, and they share that beauty with the world, even with the pollen that the bees gather to make their honey. This is the perfect time of year to appreciate the gift of flowers in our lives, the gift that so many people who tend to their gardens share with us all, year after year.
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