Roses Roses, with their intoxicating fragrance are so fresh and rich with life. Velvet petals, lush verdant foliage. One rose bush, yet each rose is bursting with colors that vary one from the other--from buds, to full bloom. Rather like each living thing--all change in appearance--not unlike the rose. Rose buds are babies, compact, bound together in a small body. As they open, they spread their petals out and lustrous colors unfurl, toward the life giving sun. After their unveiling occurs, they curl and shrink and their once velvety skin loses some of its vitality. The petals begin to surrender to the sun and the elements, and their color fades. The perfume they exuded in their youth is still there, in the heart of their bloom...You just have to get a little closer to the flower to discover its fragrance. Not much different, really, than the lives we experience from birth, through life's different stages, until we fall from the vine of existence in this world. ~~*~~ The Bee and the Flower The bee looks so heavy when compared to the delicate flower it is perched upon. The bee lands on many flowers, just as delicate. And from those flowers the bee draws sustenance, not only for itself, but for others, as well. It is a wonder that such a fragile blossom can hold the large bee's weight. I imagine the bee must take great care, else he would slip off of the petals and miss out on a meal. The odds seem unsurmountable that he should be able to dine on so precarious a perch. But dine, he does. And look at his legs, full of pollen--something to take home with him. When I feel overwhelmed with the many things each days holds in store for me I question how I can go on, as I feel so full of obstacles, questions, or worry. I mentally look at what lies before me, thinking that surely what I carry on my shoulders is so great that it will crush or block the path before me as I forge through life--for a day, a year, or a moment. But, if that golden bee can do so, why can't I? ~~*~~ Copyright Kathy Pippig Harris |
