March 20--The Tiny Flowers Are Just As Beautiful

If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness. 
--St. Therese de Lisieux

    This makes me think of the lowly, annoying dandelions that I am regularly plucking out of our yard and garden. I also think of the dandelion bouquets my sons brought me, and the joy of a child blowing away a puff of dandelion seeds. I am certain dandelions are a valuable part of the ecosystem whether or not we like them. 

    I spent an hour yesterday sitting with my brother at fireside while he talked about his several best friends from West Point. He had his days of being a "rose," as he was an Army Ranger and achieved the rank of Colonel. Miraculously, he survived two separate years in the Viet Nam war. He supported a family of five with a stock-broker career after the Army. He mentioned yesterday about how he had a big life, but most folks around him now (in the care home) will never know. Humans come and go, as do tiny flowers, and they are only known by the people they have touched in their ever-so-brief lifetimes. Some "roses" make the history books, but the vast majority of us do not. 

    Let us be generous with love and appreciation for the folks in our lives, be they roses or tiny flowers. 

        Leta

As in life, there are many more
tiny flowers than roses.