Still Beautiful, Even After Three Weeks...Only An Eternity To Go

 Three weeks tomorrow...

That's how long it's been since our daughter got engaged and how long we've had these beautiful flowers brightening up our somewhat slightly cluttered home. The flowers are wilting...the blue roses fairing better than their red counterparts (we think the blue dye helped in their preservation...). This afternoon it was time to discard the bouquet before pedals started to fall.

Though fading, they were still beautiful.

What if, they stayed in their original pristine state forever.

Of course, that's not possible...all things in this life are doomed to their own destruction. Everything created must expire, everyone born must die. 

A rose is many things, a living flower, a part of several ecosystems, but it's also a symbol, and as a symbol it becomes whatever we attach to it. These particular flowers represent a friendship more than a decade long that's blossomed into something even more beautiful, and like almost all relationships, has the potential to last an eternity.

I took the flowers outside to the trash that, unless society completely breaks down, will be picked up tomorrow morning. I snapped a picture...just wanted to remember them. Looking at the photo it made me think that the newly engaged couple's future will hopefully last longer than any flower, any plant, any thing that now exists.

Nothing on earth lasts forever, but things not of this earth, can.