flowers.

I brought flowers for you, my love. I took a stroll and stumbled upon these and instantly thought of you – because these flowers are dead and dry and have had the life sucked out of them. It’s funny because that’s what happened with us – you saw my beauty and decided to pluck me from my roots, carrying me around and letting me dry out as I yearned to be watered with your love. But that’s the thing about flowers: we silently beg to be cared for, waiting to be watered, hoping to get a chance to reach towards the sun, but when the sun doesn’t reach us in the shadows and when the sky doesn’t cry for us, we wilt, and then we die.

Now the life in me has gone away, just as it’s left these flowers… but you see, my petals still have color in them – the last sign of life, the last sign of beauty. Eventually my petals will fall because in death, they are more delicate than in life. Yet the falling of these petals was inevitable, for no flower lasts forever. And just as a flower takes its natural course and sheds itself of its beautifully delicate petals, I have grown and shed myself of who I used to be, just like a cicada who molts and sheds their exoskeleton because they’ve grown and can no longer be contained by their old shell. This shedding was necessary for me to truly grow – for me to blossom into the flower that I’ve always meant to become. And now, the skies pour love onto my stems and leaves, and onto my petals, you see. It’s incredible how nourishing rain can be after a drought. And even amidst all this rain, the sun still finds a way to beam directly onto my petals. It shines its light and I can finally reach for it, basking in its warmth as it reminds me of the love it has for me; as it tells me it hopes I continue to grow. Because now, I am the flower, I am the rain, and I am also the sun. So thank you, my love, for making me wilt, and for helping me shed, for I wouldn’t be able to see the rainbows if it weren’t for you leaving me out to dry, deprived of the wet nourishment of love.

I took a stroll today and stumbled upon these flowers, and they reminded me of myself.