July 17th, 2020

I've been watching this one particular hibiscus bloom evolve over the past 5 days.  That's all it took from the first suggestion of a bud to past it's prime. Just 5 short days.  And that seems far too brief a time, doesn't it?

If I look at the hibiscus bush (shrub? tree? I have no idea what category it falls into) as a whole, it seems as if there is something blooming all of the time.  Sometimes so many blooms at one time that the greenery is nearly completely obscured.  Other times just a few pops of red here and there.  And other times, just one solo bloom.  But still, flowering activity is going on in some stage.  So I never really considered the "life time" of one single flower.  

Up until this week when I bothered to register the existence of our hibiscus at all, it was as one large unit.  I never once considered the hibiscus as a collection of individual blooms before this week.  Isn't that a strange thing.

The hibiscus is right there.  It 's in the courtyard in front of our house.  Anytime I return from running errands or taking a walk, I see it. Whenever I'm relaxing in the courtyard or cooking on the grill, it's right there.  I'm glad it's there.  I love the bright colour and how it attracts butterflies and honey bees.  I enjoy seeing bunnies and frogs and lizards nestling underneath.  But when it registers in my mind it is as "The" hibiscus, not these hibiscus's, or even those hibiscus blossoms.

At least not until this week.  Taking the time to take note of one specific bud and watch it grow and bloom and then pass quietly by in those very brief 5 days certainly made me think about it more, appreciate it more, take more notice of it.

And the back of my brain (which is so much smarter than the front of my brain) kept trying to tell me that there was an important message in there somewhere.

I'm not absolutely certain what that message is but I'm working on it.  It could be about appreciating each moment of each day because, like my little 5 day hibiscus, we each get only  a limited number of days.

Or it could be a reminder to consider people as individuals instead of as groups of any sort.  A reminder to not think or speak of others in broad terms, no sweeping generalities. 

Maybe it's a reminder that life is, at it's most basic level, very simple.

Hopefully I will figure out what the message is that I was supposed to have figured out.  But in the meantime, I will enjoy our lovely hibiscus and I will try to take the time, more often, to see things a little differently and appreciate life more.