How to Greet A Flower

“It’s said, that of greeted correctly, the flowers in the town park would whisper secrets to you”

But parks are rare, the flowers that occupy them more weeds than anything else. We live in a world where people have forgotten how to greet a flower, forgotten the gentle touch needed to hold its leaves in a firm handshake.

So when you do see a flower, sometimes, it will be easier to unfurl the petals that hold secrets of a people who respected the earth.

It is easier to receive from those desperate to give and nobody has stopped to smell the roses in so long that the roses are begging to be acknowledged outside of the plucking and pruning of Valentines’s day.

Some parks will be gone, but the flowers still fight for space in cracks of the sidewalks.

Press your ear to the cold concrete.

It isn’t comfortable

But neither is growing from asphalt and the odds that are stacked against you.

Press your ear to the cold concrete and listen.

Listen passed the rumble of cars and busses.

The flowers will tell you how they thrived in the darkest nights.

Flowers are kind. They willl offer advice.

Tell you thinks like how to avoid being stepped on when you feel rooted in place.

They will tel you how it feels to be bone dry one day and drowning the next

and they will tell you how to survive it all.

Flowers are not forever; in a world of steel and concrete

So when you see a flower be sure to take the time to pay your respects. Don’t pick if for a bouquet or as a single offering to a loved one.

Smile. Say hello. Take the time to listen. Leave it where it has laid its roots and hope that someone, someday, will be as lucky as you.

To have greeted a flower. And learned it’s secrets.