The way with Nature

I thought the signs on the grass read: ‘Do not step on the flowers.’

I thought the signs on the footpath read: ‘Do not pick the flowers.’

I thought the signs that were scattered all around the neighbourhood said: ‘Leave the flowers alone.’

But clearly I am mistaken. Everyday I watch as one of my friends slowly wilt away. From a little human running across our delicate petals, or a bigger human plucking us from the soil to give to the person beside them who already holds a fistful of our roots. I wonder if it gives them pleasure, to see us suffer like this? I would hope not, but the rest of humanity seems to be in their favour. ‘Tis a cruel world that we live in.

I feel especially sorry for Sumbria. 

Who is Sumbria you may ask?

You humans are even more detrimental than I first thought.

Did you know that flowers have names too? Just as you may call a fellow human Jim, we call a fellow flower Sumbria. Sumbria is a sunflower, and she is my best friend. She lives on the other side of the field, but we can still communicate at a certain time of the day. Being a sunflower, she is always forced to stare into the sun, which is very, very bright and very, very hot. At a certain time of the day, 3:12pm exactly, the sun sits directly above me, which is when Sumbria can look in my direction for a moment before the sun continues to set below the valley. 

I enjoy watching the little human kiddies play together on the footpath or on a swing, but every time one runs across our grassy plains, my heart starts beating faster and faster until I am submerged in the sound of my own heart beating. Some human kids are far more thoughtful than human adults. Some human kids listen to the signs that read; ‘Do not step on the flowers,’ and; ‘Do not pick the flowers,’ and ‘Leave the flowers alone.’ But human adults seem to think that they can just do whatever they want, and they don’t even glance at the signs. 

Big mistake Human.

There’s this human kid called Freddy, and he is five and three quarters years old he says. Everyday he walks down the path that winds through our field every morning on his way to Hill-Top school, which is on the top of a hill. He always waves to us flowers and stops to talk with us for a while, which is how I know that he is five and three quarters years old. Little Freddy is very sweet for a human kid.

The weather is rather disagreeable business. If it is sunny, we all grow and prosper, but if it is too hot we burn and shrivel away. If it is cold, we shiver, but too cold and we freeze. Stormy, and we blow in the wind, but too stormy and we blow away. 

I prefer it when it is just right, but that is very hard to come across. 

Once, a human adult was walking past us playing a violin. I love the violin, it sounds very pretty. I’d watched the human adult with fascination as I’d noticed that they’d held the violin really weirdly with part of it under their chin, and they held the bow with their fingers spread out in a very intriguing fashion. I’ve never heard the violin again since then which is very sad. I’ve heard the flute before though, it is pretty but not beautiful like the violin. 

There was a flood once in our field. It had rained a lot that night and there was so much water that it wasn’t draining properly. It was dirty business. When a flower absorbs too much water, it drowns. This is what happened to three of my best friends that night. Mr Chalk lives around the corner from us and he wasn't very happy about the flood either.

Mr Chalk is a teacher at Hill-Top school, and he is a very nasty piece of work. He walks by us most mornings on his way to work, and he grumbles at the ‘stupid flowers that litter the ground.’ He stomps all over us too, as if murder towards flower kind would solve all his problems. He spits on us as well, which is very rude, and he drops rubbish on us all the time. There was one incident where he was in a particularly bad mood and he started kicking up all the flower beds until the ‘Garden Master,’ who is a member of the council told him to stop. The ‘Garden Master’ is a nickname us flowers have for Mr George who is a very grumpy human, but he is nice to us so that is okay. Mr Chalk stopped kicking up the flower beds after that, but he still continued on his -not-so-merry way, shouting words that mean very rude things. 

I think it is very sad that Mr Chalk doesn’t like flowers. 

Springtime was always my favourite time of the year because it was when all the new buds blossomed and became beautiful flowers like us. The prettiest flower blossoms are the roses because they look perfectly sweet and charming. I often wish I was a rose so I could look perfectly charming too. However, there is some sadness in the atmosphere as well. 

Because every flower that blooms and blossoms will die. 

As I was thinking about this, and looking at the signs which apparently say to leave the flowers alone, a little human boy started shouting and running in my direction. I tugged at my roots with all my strength and tried to move aside, but this is something flowers cannot and never will be able to do. 

I felt a sharp pain cut through me like a knife, and I shrivelled up and lay limp on the lush green grass. And when the remains of my withered body disintegrated into the ground, nobody would ever know what had happened.

Because as I discovered, flowers never bleed. 

But that is the way with nature.