Flowers
Prose by Wayne Visser
~ Flowers are Nature’s way of smiling and laughing ~
How close are the nearest flowers to you right now? Are there flowers in your home, your office, your garden? It is hard to imagine a world without flowers. From the moment we are born to the day we die, flowers adorn our lives. As we take our first breath, flowers greet us, and when we are laid to rest, flowers bid us farewell. When we graduate or are promoted, flowers cheer on our achievements, and when we get married or have children, flowers rejoice in the promise of our love. Isn’t it amazing that flowers are suited to every occasion? A romantic dinner is incomplete without a red rose for company, and a carnation corsage is the perfect partner for an evening of dance. Flowers help us to celebrate our joys and mourn our losses, to let someone know we care, and to brighten an otherwise cheerless day. Flowers are a reminder of spring’s eternal hope and life’s unconditional beauty. Even in the most unlikely places – in parched deserts and frozen tundra, on skyscraper roofs and ghetto streets, in muddy swamps and refuse dumps, clinging to cliff ledges and squeezing through pavement cracks – flowers bloom. It’s as if they are saying that there is no condition too harsh or too difficult, no circumstance too dire or too oppressive, that a glimmer of light cannot reach and a splash of colour cannot redeem. When our world is dark and grey, flowers bring the sun and the rainbow. And when our world is bright and iridescent, flowers echo with smiles and laughter. Flowers are the blooming of our emotions. They express how we feel when words fail us or are not enough. They reflect our inner landscape in every season, whatever the weather. Do you have a favourite flower? When you close your eyes and imagine being in paradise, what flowers grace the scene? Are there fields of purple heather, or patchwork carpets of tulips? Perhaps intoxicating cascades of jasmine, or sweet smelling frangipanis? Do you picture a perfectly formed rose, or an exuberant sunflower? Maybe there are flaming lilies or pure-white snowdrops? Whichever flowers we adore, we know that our lives would be poorer without them. Flowers are symbols of emerging promise, of unfolding beauty, of budding progress. They remind us that becoming is a natural process. Buddhists use the lotus as a sacred representation of the flowering of consciousness, the dawning of enlightenment. For like the lotus blossom, we too open as we reach for the light, and close when darkness engulfs us. We too need to be coaxed to develop our potential, encouraged to discover our abilities, nurtured to expose our hearts. Flowers connect us together. The Japanese cherry blossom, the Welsh daffodil, the South African protea and the Chinese orchid – all remind us that civilization flowers as many diverse cultures, but we remain one humanity. And like flowers, it is cross-pollination – of ideas and values, art and science, visions and solutions – which ensures our survival. We should not hesitate to freely share the very best of what we have to offer the world, for prosperity thrives on exchange. Communication technologies are the birds and bees, the ladybirds and butterflies of our new global consciousness. And as we spread our knowledge and learning, we have the unique opportunity to blossom as the human race. Flowers inspire us to celebrate our relationships – to honour those we love, to admire the exquisite qualities in our friends, to cherish the aesthetic connections with our families. We should never be without flowers in our lives, whether it is to brighten our spirits, or console our sorrows, to cheer our mood, or to calm our nerves. Flowers are life’s natural tonic, a pep-me-up for all ailments and a gift for all occasions. What flowers will you choose today?Wayne Visser © 2005
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