The law of the internet dictates that you may have information. But this does not guarantee your knowledge on a subject.
Subject to the law of nature, sometimes you need to learn a LESSON the hard way. Going through it yourself is perhaps the only way you can truly learn.
Let me demonstrate this:
I picked a wild sunflower in the afternoon this week. They grow at an illegal dumping site in the west-most part of Witpoortjie, West Rand of Johannesburg.
I have seen vans, some with trailers, dump heaps of rubble, garbage and,periodically, skinned cow heads there.
Our hearts have been filled with hope by witnessing flowers grow through concrete.
I guess if you asked a flower what the difference between a squalor and concrete is, they would say it is perspective.
I have seen traffic officials issue fines there. Therefore, bribes must have taken place there.
If we believe otherwise, we have learnt nothing from nature:
It teaches us that wherever there is light, an equal amount of darkness exists. These contradictory opposites insist on being inseparable.
They are also why we believe in Karma. In cause and effect, in action and reaction.
I put the sunflower, with a very long stem, in the back seat of my car and drove home, 20 minutes away.
My fiancé loves sunflowers. On our first date, in 2019, we had dinner at an art eatery in Orlando, Soweto. We had mogodu and samp. They played jazz, and there were paintings by local artists on the walls. We sat outside on the magnificent patch of grass, underlooking the stars. They overlooked us like a wallpaper with sunflowers in focus.
If nature ever needed a wrist watch; what flower?, designed with what metaphysical inclination to time, if not the sunflower?
They are time itself in how they turn with the sun. And bow to darkness.
They are libraries. A blind man’s palm can read their stance and know if it is day or night.
I got home excited to present the gift. Parked and took the long flower out of my car. I didn’t know they wilt quicker if you pick them in the afternoon. keeping the clipped sunflower out of water for over 20 minutes didn't help either. But there is a lot I don’t know about them specifically, and flowers in general.
So I went back on Tuesday to pick another one from its roots so I can plant it in my garden.
This second one took longer to wilt.
This second attempt, also failed, to bring the flower home on a long-term basis, retaught me PATIENCE.
I gave gratitude to the two dead flowers for the lesson.
Their death is not in vain, my fiancé and I spread the seeds of one where we would like them to grow in our garden. The other will be dried and used to make a natural bird feeder. We are going to hang it sunny-side up on a tree.
As for the seedlings, sunflowers have a tendency to repress growth of other plants, like weeds. I guess I will be doing less gardening, and more admiring when they bloom.