delicate flowers

I have just sat down on a rock. And only after settling did I notice, around my feet, some tiny flowers: just one or two dotted about, so small I had not noticed them before. They have tiny white petals with violet tips, the white softly gently merging into the violet. And at their very centre they have a yellow heart, a tiny dot of yellow. They are beautiful. And they are very delicate. And seeing them, I realise how easily we can destroy delicate things, if we do not have the sensitivity to notice them and to acknowledge their fragility. Looking inside I see that the heart can be like this: a delicate, fragile thing – beautiful, but vulnerable – so easily crushed if there is no sensitivity.

And our spirit too sometimes feels like this. In fact, the spirit can never be crushed, but the feeling of it is of something delicate. It is so subtle, in a way. And even to feel its beauty one must have a stillness, a silence to hear its song, and a tenderness to embrace it, and to allow it to embrace one.

So these tiny flowers today are reminding me to be sensitive, and gentle, and tender – both with myself and with other beings. For within us all there are these delicate flowers, so beautiful, but so easily crushed. And I pray to have the sensitivity to always see these flowers, wherever they are, in whomsoever they are.