2️⃣119: i LOVE Flowers 💐

Seriously.

Because flowers are life

You might think that all these material things are life, but they’re not

They’re really cool, some more than others

But that’s not life

Life is all the other things

sunrise

sunset

the wind

the leaves

birds chirping

the people you love

a smile

the moon

a tree that takes 8 years to bear apples or 10 years for olives 🫒

a cactus that grows so slowly you think it’s not growing at all, until one day a flower blooms, then you never see the flower again—but what a beautiful day it was when that did happen

waking up next to someone who makes you feel safe

the waves brushing your feet as you slowly sink into the sand

the unforgiving sun beating down on you from 91.482 million miles away as a reminder that you’re still alive

taking a deep breath of that deliciously cold winter air when the temperatures drop below 50, and it’s freezing outside, but you’re bundled up wearing more layers of clothing than what people brought in the knapsacks on their way through Ellis Island (yes, below 50 is freezing, but it’s still nice, i’m from the Caribbean)

“I don’t have any clothes,” we say, staring at our closets filled from edge to edge, bursting with fabric and patterns and more outfit options than some people will have in their entire lives.

We say we have nothing, but we have more things than most people in the history of the world have ever had.

Still, we want more.

More money, more cars, more stocks, more clothes, more land. Land that doesn’t belong to us, but we say it does because a few pieces of paper have been exchanged.

“The world is not enough,” some say, but the world is all we have.

If the world isn’t enough, what is?

Nothing will ever be enough for greed. Nothing will ever be enough for entitlement. Nothing will ever be enough for those who feel the world owes them something, for no reason at all than because they believe it. Because they were told. Because of who they are. Because some descendant of theirs said it to their child years ago, and they said it to their child, and so on and so forth it went generation after generation. Until one day, generations later, those kids have more than the world could ever give. More than the world has ever given to a single person. More than any single person should have when there are others that have nothing.

Still, they want more.

You don’t understand, I worked hard for this. I earned this.

And the others who barely have anything at all?

They should’ve worked harder.

That’s why we need to appreciate the flowers 🌺

Appreciate the way the leaves dance when the wind blows and the sun shines and the rain drops kiss your forehead. “Be careful not to get wet!” That’s like telling someone be careful not to live. Sometimes you need to dance in the rain, walk on the grass barefoot, let the saltwater rush through your nose and clear out all the junk that’s burrowing inside of you.

“I have to jump in the ocean,” my dad said one cold winter morning. He knows life is what gives us life, and we can’t make the most of our living without making sure we do a little living while we’re living it.

When I tell you I want to repot the plants, it’s because I want to show them love. And even though I show them a lot of love, sometimes they need even more love.

I was listening to that stupid podcast I told you about (that you said you listened to and actually enjoyed), and one guy said he didn’t like flowers. Didn’t want to even get gifted flowers because he didn’t know what to do with them.

“You just put them in water, and eventually, they die?!?!”

Yes, but everything dies.

Everything in life.

That’s what life is.

Just because something is leaving forever “some day” doesn’t mean we shouldn’t appreciate it 2day. That’s the most beautiful part about all of this, it doesn’t last.

Nothing does.

Not forever.

We always say we’ll get to it another day, or we’ll call that friend back when we have more time. When we’re not so busy.

But time is one thing we’ll never get more of. Not more than you have right now.

Not in the way you think you will

The way you hope you will.

You need love. You need life. Bright, vibrant life. Not digital screens and cold, heartless surfaces.

All these things we think we need that either last forever or can be easily replaced. Get one exactly like the one you had before or one that’s even better.

But a flower never blooms the same way twice.

And all flowers die.

Who are we to judge the usefulness of the life of a flower through human eyes? Because we live so much longer? There we go again, seeing the world through our perspective, instead of realizing we are merely characters in a story that takes billions of years to tell.

Yes, flowers die.

But then they are born again. And again.

The cycle continues.

Long before you or I were ever here, and long after you and I are six feet under. Then we will be the ones nurturing the Earth.

Food for flowers.

The next time you look at a flower and think to yourself that this thing isn’t worth investing in because it doesn’t last. Remember that, long after your time is done, there will be flowers growing in the spot where a memory is the only evidence your life ever happened.

But there will always be more flowers 🌼