Since my last post, I've realized that I am a little mixed up about the #colorchallenge. The first day of the week is Sunday, and the first color of the rainbow (ROYGBIV) is red, so naturally I thought Sunday would be red, Monday orange and so forth. That makes sense to me. But apparently the color challenge begins on Monday..? Does anyone really know what day it is?
Well, in light of my mistake and because I posted today's color yesterday, I decided to make up for it by sharing a photo that is both #yellow and #orange.
Flowers have been an inspiration to poets for centuries. So beautiful, yet many of them come and go so quickly. Like our own lives, they begin as a seed, then a bud, they bloom and grow, for how long we don't know. Some flowers can grow for years given the right weather and other factors. But as Percy Shelley points out, a flower that smiles today may be gone tomorrow. This poem, like many others from the English Romantic era, looks on nature but reflects on a deeper subject—love, life, the state of mankind. I don't have time to write a full essay on this poem, which is what I'm feeling inspired to do at this moment but, alas, I have to go to work. I will leave you with this one thought, the striking theme from the poem below: carpe diem. Nothing is guaranteed, and not everything lasts forever; therefore, remember to seize the day, savor each moment, appreciate each blessing, and live life to the fullest.
The Flower That Smiles Today
By Percy Shelley
The flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow dies;
All that we wish to stay
Tempts and then flies.
What is this world’s delight?
Lightning that mocks the night,
Brief even as bright.
Virtue, how frail it is!
Friendship how rare!
Love, how it sells poor bliss
For proud despair!
But we, though soon they fall,
Survive their joy, and all
Which ours we call.
Whilst skies are blue and bright,
Whilst flowers are gay,
Whilst eyes that change ere night
Make glad the day;
Whilst yet the calm hours creep,
Dream thou—and from thy sleep
Then wake to weep.
