Dead Enough

I saw these dead flowers the other day.

Now they’re covered by the first snow. But anyways.

That snow will likely melt, but not more than weeks ago those flowers were there: upright on their stems, but dead.

What I saw were just shells of what used to be these multi-colored and vibrant decorations of nature that swayed at the will of the wind. They were exuberant.

And it just seemed in that second where my brain registered their deadness that a few short weeks ago they carried their full vibrancy and even dominated an entire plot of land with their monochromatic shades of yellow. A few weeks ago I expected that of them.

But it wasn’t just a few short weeks ago. It was months ago — all the way back in the spring. And that lapse in connection to the rapid occurrence of time — I think that’s natures reminder to check our focus.

The lifecycle of things is varied and there’s always a right time. From spring to fall a whole species of things live and die. And if we take that space of time and zoom out, we can look at our lives in perspective. And it should check us into some questions — our focus matters.

We are those living things that complete (or complicate) a cycle over time. We live, grow, suffer, thrive, die, all in the same lifetime, but it’s a lifetime where we get to dictate more of the environment than a fragile flower.

So go on — find the right flower, do the right things. Live the right life.