Flowers

We can walk by flowers and appreciate their beauty or we can stop and cut them and put them in a vase and have fleeting enjoyment until the cat knocks them off the shelf and the dog eats them.  This holiday season, we can enjoy window shopping and decorations, or we can buy for ourselves what we don't need and give others what they don't need.  This time of year, we all tend to turn into hungry ghosts...the more we get, the more we want.  We may talk about "the spirit" of the holidays. We may have every intention to help those less fortunate than ourselves, but unless we act on those intentions, they become fake flowers: beautiful, but with no fragrance. The cats may not knock them over, the dogs may not eat them, but we will not appreciate their scent and will not benefit from their authenticity.