Today, I was at my local, overpriced hippy food market and I decided to buy some flowers. I chose what I thought were really pretty and colorfully robust flowers.Gerber daisies (native of South Africa) are my most favorite flowers in the world (followed by any daisy, tulips, and roses). They are bright and big. When I used to work in a flower shop in Los Angeles, I always used to try to get customers to add them to the bouquet arrangements I would make for them. The flowers always made me smile.
When I was choosing my flowers I saw a bright yellow type of Gerber that I'd never seen before, as I was used to the bright pinks, deep reds, and bold oranges. These daisies have almost a sunflower quality to them. I thought they were beautiful, so I chose them and also picked up a bouquet of assorted flowers with roses. When I got outside into the bright sunshine, I noticed that a few of the daisies (they are very fragile and don't last long) were a bit mangled, discolored, and missing some petals. It would be easy to kind of be a little miffed about paying $10 for a bouquet of imperfect flowers, but then when I remembered that it won't matter in ten years, I gained a little perspective. 
You can see what you think is beauty and then find out it is marred in some way. Most likely, you will be disappointed. In fact, you might even now think that the beauty you so admired is completely ruined. However, as within the bouquet I purchased, there might be beauty amongst the imperfection. A few beautiful flowers among the battered ones still give that bouquet beauty. Are the other flowers still worth keeping? Yes. Just like with bruised fruit, you put aside the imperfection for what might still otherwise be good, and in the fruit's case, sweet. 
I was upset when I saw that a few of my flowers were battered, discolored, and missing petals. However, I was still able to see what attracted me to the bouquet, and that made the flowers worth keeping and admiring.
4 comments:
I like that. Will this matter in 10 years. I use five, but it's the same thing really. Keep it up. I'm sure most of the flowers were still beautiful.
Why is it that whenever you write something this awesome, no one comments?
Pretty pictures, I think that you chose the correct perspective.
Beauty without flaws is very rare in my experience, and the contrast between your perfect flowers and their imperfect cousins can only add to the beauty of the former.
Very nice post, RT. It's a good analogy to life, I think. You have to be able to see the beauty.
Fiar:
Sometimes you have to ask yourself if things will matter even hours from now.
The flowers are very pretty, especially after snipping the ends and giving them some fresh water.
DBA:
When I walked out of the store and looked down at my flowers, I was little disappointed, but then I decided that I would try to see things a different way.
I've been working on my attitude and on how I see things in life. Sometimes we have to turn things around or flip them so that we think of things in a different way--sometimes it helps to make us better people. I'm also trying to see better things in me and how I preceive my own worth. Thinking differently really helped, I must say.
I think when you learn to accept the beauty hidden within all the flaws, you learn that life can be so much richer. Diamond in the rough isn't a cliche for nothin'. :)
(Those pictures are from my new cell phone. I'm pleased with how they turned out.)
Mrs. G:
People get so caught up in the flaws and being critical (sometimes rightly, so) that they ignore the beauty that does exist, even in flaws or those that are flawed.
People who only see the flaws miss out on having some good people/things in their lives.
I've been trying to see the good in life, people, and things.
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