Because flowers come and go so quickly, it’s easy to think of them as fragile. I guess, in fact, they are in one way. But they are also immensely powerful. All of the plants energy has gone into this beauty whose job is fall apart after having attracted the pollinators and protected its reproductive organs. We’re not supposed to cut the leaves while green because they’re doing their little photosynthesis thing for the plant.

But as far as most of us think, the tulip’s job is Beauty. Proud, loud Beauty and delicate, fragile Beauty. (if you cut them, remember to put a penny in the vase and it will keep them happily upright — not fake news!). They come in Spring and offer themselves for our delight. They remind us the Sun is returning. If rain and wind don’t do them in, they stand as proud sentinels until they fall apart.

But they grow tall and beautiful and please us mightily. They bring their own kind of Peace. And they are instructive. They use their energy to do what they’re best at and then they go away for the year. May the Fourth, Friends!