Wilted Flowers

The other day, my wife asked my son to accompany her to go to the grocery store. When they arrived home and were sorting out what they bought, my wife got mildly upset when she found out that one of the cut hydrangea flowers she bought has a broken stalk.

My wife loves flowers. She planted a variety of flowers in our garden, but besides that she also would like cut flowers inside our home. She even regularly buy fresh flowers to display. Sometimes she jokingly accused me that “You don’t bring me flowers…. anymore” (just like the song of Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond with the same title). But I counter that I don’t need to, since she’s already getting her own flowers anyway. Honestly though, I still bring her flowers once in a while.

We also have an unwritten house rule that we don’t decorate with fake flowers. Even though it may not be cheap and it can trigger allergies, if we want flowers in the house, it needed to be fresh and real, not plastic.

And that bring us back to the flower head that has a broken stalk. My wife looked for the sales receipt and said that they can go back to the grocery store and replace the broken one. To that, my son commented, “it’s only flowers mom, in a week or two, it would wilt and die.”

What my son meant is that we don’t need to sweat it out or be overly upset, as the flowers would die in a few days anyway. Somehow it make sense.

However, I can look at this in two angles.

First, yes it is true that the flowers would dry out in a week or so, so why get so worked up over something that will fade away quickly. Things are temporary, and we should not get so attached to them. Let us focus on the bigger picture or the more important things in life, for everything in this world would one day be gone.

On the other angle, things are transient, but even if we are given a short time, we should do our best in that short time we are given. For the flowers, they should display their beauty even how brief their life is. Their purpose was to show their splendor and disseminate their fragrance and make us happy while they last, even for a fleeting moment.

Life is like a mist, here now, gone tomorrow. Yet, we are still given THIS present time. Let us make the best out of it.

As for the flower with the broken stalk, we kept it.

(*photos of our wilted flowers)

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Post Note:

In loving memory of our friend Manny, who passed away a day after I post this article. His life was cut short, way too short, yet he lived a full life of service.