Petals

Life is a stream
On which we strew
Petal by petal the flower of our heart;
The end lost in dream,
They float past our view,
We only watch their glad, early start.

Freighted with hope,
Crimsoned with joy,
We scatter the leaves of our opening rose;
Their widening scope,
Their distant employ,
We never shall know. And the stream as it flows
Sweeps them away,
Each one is gone
Ever beyond into infinite ways.
We alone stay
While years hurry on,
The flower fared forth, though its fragrance still stays.

– Amy Lowell (American poet, 1874-1925)

Do any of you ever wonder how far your influence will spread?

I saw these petals during a visit to the South Carolina Botanical Gardens the other day and immediately thought of Amy Lowell’s famous poem.

The Japanese apricot tree that announced spring’s arrival to me with its first brilliant flush of bloom on February 10th is now losing its petals.  So many of them ended up strewn on the path, and would no doubt have made a lovely photograph if the camera could pick up their pale, delicate beauty in the half-light under heavy, weeping skies.  (Yes, I went there in the rain; everything was just as beautiful, if changed.)

Those few in the photograph landed on the wooden handrail of the footbridge that traverses a small waterfall there.  Many had fallen to the mossy ground below the tree.  But by far the majority of the petals fell into the water, cascaded down the rapids, and swirled into the pond below.

The pond itself had turned an opaque sienna with all of the input from two turbulent streams stirring up mud and silt as they came pouring in, swollen from the rains and melting snow.  The petals, now tiny dots of soft color shimmering in a dulled landscape, drifted on the surface in changing patterns.

As I watched, a huge crow flew overhead, its wings flung wide in a dark silhouette perfectly reflected by the pond, except where it was speckled by pink petals.

We do not know where the petals we have strewn in life may end up; do we?  I guess this is one reason why it is so important to stay present each moment and be aware of the other beings around us, to pay close attention to what we say and do, to be kind whenever possible.

One of the fascinating discoveries for me in blogging has been hearing about my own influence spanning the globe, if only for a moment, to touch the heart of someone on another continent, half a world away… and realizing that someone I have never met, and likely never will, may lodge a new thought in my mind and bring tears to my eyes, warmth to my heart, or a smile to my face as they reveal the intricate details of their place on this incredible planet, share their reality and their truth and their joy and their pain, fling another handful of the petals of their heart into the flowing stream, spendthrift with their own unique beauty.

This particular petal that Ms. Lowell sent out into the world is still adrift on the waters, still floating downstream and spreading her heart’s influence.  I wonder if she could have imagined that.

On one point, she and I will have to disagree, however.  Ms. Lowell seems to think that there is a limited supply of petals, that once one has strewn a single flower’s worth to float away down the river, one is left with only a lingering fragrance.  I happen to think it works a different way.  Perhaps it’s true that one only has a lone rose at the beginning.  Upon releasing its bounty and goodness into the world, though, that rose is replaced by a rose bush in full bloom, and once the rose bush has been shared with others, I expect an entire rose garden will unfold before us.

Naturally the metaphor becomes clumsy if I insert my worldview into her poem.  What I believe we are really doing is more like sowing seeds wherever we walk, planting our incomparable varieties with every word and choice and gesture, so that they may take root wherever conditions are favorable, and grow and multiply and even blend with others to form new generations of seed, eventually spreading their influence far beyond our comprehension today.

A single seed, planted carefully now, may result in millions of blossoms on hundreds of apricot trees spilling untold billions of lovely, delicate petals into the world.  This thought inspires me to sow as wisely as I can today.

Namasté, y’all.

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