Friday, September 6, 2019

Inside and Outside


Inside and Outside

I have two pots of African violets sitting on my kitchen windowsill. Most of the time they just have fuzzy green leaves and no flowers but I like them anyway. This summer they started to bloom. Each little stem carried three or four beautiful flowers and more stems kept blooming. It has been a real treat for me to see every time I go to the sink and look up.

I also love the hibiscus plants outside my kitchen window. They have two blossoming times, one in the beginning of summer and the other at the season’s end. Their vibrant red flowers are riveting.

Today I looked at the African violets as I was pouring water into my teapot and was drawn to look outside at the hibiscus flowers. I gasped with pleasure. The inside flowers were beautiful. The outside flowers were beautiful. It made me suddenly aware of how beauty exists in both areas. We are amazing beings inside ourselves, full of intelligence and diversity. But we also are part of the outside world, interacting with what nature and other humans offer. If we can just remember that everything is part of the whole perhaps we can allow our inside and outside worlds to coexist in peace.

Yogi tea tag: “Be kind to others, but always be compassionate to yourself.”