Daisy By Daisy
From a distance, a field of daisies looks like a wash of white and gold. Every flower seems like every other flower. Every daisy blends with each other in a kind of floral cosmic sea.
When you actually walk through the field of daisies, however, you realise that no one flower is anything like any other. Each has its own touch of beauty, one catching the sun in a perfect white, another still aglow with a soft spray of morning dew. Each also has its own imperfections, one with a touch of rust, another with a gnarled and twisted stem.
So it is with all of life. We are told that we are one people, and from a distance, I suppose that seems the case. Each of us, however, is unique, not just in appearance, but in the way we think, hope, dream, and love.
If you were to pick a bouquet of daisies and bring them home to stand in a vase of water, one of those daisies would probably last longer and be more brilliant than all the rest. Another would seriously disappoint you, wilt in seemingly no time at all, with its petals growing brown and ragged by the minute. Do you pluck the imperfect one from the vase and dispatch it to the garbage? Maybe you do. After all, it is just a flower you have picked from a field somewhere.
In life, when we gather our loved ones around us, our friends, our family, our lovers, one of those people always impresses us the most, while another may have failed to live up to our expectations. Do we cast that family member, that friend, or that lover aside? Does everyone, every individual with whom we are close, have to validate our own hopes and dreams? Too often, we are quick to pluck out the imperfect flower that seems out of place in our world, in our bouquet of hopes and dreams. Too often, you and I, we ... we are the all, and so we banish those who look or act or walk to the "beat of a different drummer."
We are only "one" in the sense that, from a distance, humanity is one species. As you walk through your life, through the towns and the city streets, through the family reunions and the days of special celebration, there will be those who do not quite fit in, those who are too outspoken, those who reject your values. Accept them for who they are, not because you have no choice, but because you value their uniqueness, just as much as you value your own individuality.
In life, no two daisies are alike ... and not one is diminished by its difference from the others.
From a distance, a field of daisies looks like a wash of white and gold. Every flower seems like every other flower. Every daisy blends with each other in a kind of floral cosmic sea.
When you actually walk through the field of daisies, however, you realise that no one flower is anything like any other. Each has its own touch of beauty, one catching the sun in a perfect white, another still aglow with a soft spray of morning dew. Each also has its own imperfections, one with a touch of rust, another with a gnarled and twisted stem.
So it is with all of life. We are told that we are one people, and from a distance, I suppose that seems the case. Each of us, however, is unique, not just in appearance, but in the way we think, hope, dream, and love.
If you were to pick a bouquet of daisies and bring them home to stand in a vase of water, one of those daisies would probably last longer and be more brilliant than all the rest. Another would seriously disappoint you, wilt in seemingly no time at all, with its petals growing brown and ragged by the minute. Do you pluck the imperfect one from the vase and dispatch it to the garbage? Maybe you do. After all, it is just a flower you have picked from a field somewhere.
In life, when we gather our loved ones around us, our friends, our family, our lovers, one of those people always impresses us the most, while another may have failed to live up to our expectations. Do we cast that family member, that friend, or that lover aside? Does everyone, every individual with whom we are close, have to validate our own hopes and dreams? Too often, we are quick to pluck out the imperfect flower that seems out of place in our world, in our bouquet of hopes and dreams. Too often, you and I, we ... we are the all, and so we banish those who look or act or walk to the "beat of a different drummer."
We are only "one" in the sense that, from a distance, humanity is one species. As you walk through your life, through the towns and the city streets, through the family reunions and the days of special celebration, there will be those who do not quite fit in, those who are too outspoken, those who reject your values. Accept them for who they are, not because you have no choice, but because you value their uniqueness, just as much as you value your own individuality.
In life, no two daisies are alike ... and not one is diminished by its difference from the others.
