I sit here at the farm, on the verandah facing West, and the world tumbles into perspective. Nature is so simple. It turns through the seasons, over and over, doing what it needs to do to. People, on the other hand, can be complicated; there's a smile on the face while muddied waters flow beneath.
Flowers never succumb to bad moods or hidden agendas. They simply don't have the time, or the inclination. A poppy, picked for the table, has just a few days up it's sleeve before its petals begin to fall, one by one. Perhaps if our own timelines were a little shorter we'd spend more time on the good stuff and less on the bad. No more sweating the small stuff.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the fleetingness of what I do, and whether that is ok, or enough. Shouldn't I be doing something lasting and beneficial to the world and humankind - stem cell research, foreign aid, wilderness conservation...? But then this week I took flowers to two brides and both of them nudged tears of happiness. A wedding is a hugely meaningful day in the lives of the people who are committing to one another, and I love the symbolic part that flowers play. People are always happy to give and receive flowers and it occurred to me that delivering them is like being a little spreader of happiness. If something is beautiful enough that it brings tears to the eye, then maybe that
is enough. I like to think that the provision of beauty, and the appreciation of nature, is a worthwhile endeavour after all. It's goodness on a small scale.
