The Earth Laughs in Flowers

Did you ever watch a flower grow?

A flower’s fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile,
available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar.
Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force,
all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth.
We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages,
we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire.
-Diane Ackerman A Natural History of the Senses, 1990

Where flowers bloom so does hope.