Wildflowers

Have you ever gazed upon a field of wildflowers? They grow in the most obscure places at times, fighting for a place amongst mesquite trees, cactus, wheat fields, and asphalt, concrete. Indian paintbrush flowers, or Castilleja, will scatter across the rural lands of Texas. You’ll see them along the highway, waving hello and goodbye, as they dance in the wind.

Wildflowers fight to survive, taking any space where their beauty can flourish and refusing to succumb to other vegetation, fighting the same war humanity has scorned them with. The world, humanity, is great at starting wars. The suffering of those who feel it most are the least recognized. The war humanity has descended upon earth will leave her forever scared. Burned from fires, from fuel we pump from her veins. Her hands bound as the very life is pulled from her core, and her surface left barren.

Some stop to smell the flowers, appreciate their beauty, and existence. Others pass them by, nothing more than smeared paint on the windshield of their car, in the constant go of society — the greed of wanting more revenue, infrastructure, and the ideology of success. No one stops going, or we push it off until another day. Tomorrow, I’ll stop to pick one. I’ll take a photo. I’ll merely appreciate their existence, along with my own. Time is forever fleeting, like a bullet train you can’t seem to step off. A clock that you can’t turn the dial back, no matter how hard you try to force the hands back.

In the battle of survival, the wildflower finds a place in the world where humanity disregards its presence. We skip out on the joy of simplicity and admiration. We focus solely on the things we think will make us happy. The world is dark, cruel, and unforgiving, but it’s exceptionally unique, beautiful, and worth stopping to enjoy the moment. Wildflowers remind me to enjoy life, to appreciate every day as if it were my last. I admit that I’ve succumbed to the constant go. I’ve let them become static, a blur of colors as I pass them while going to my next destination. It can be difficult to break the cycle.

However, it’s breathtaking when you stop to feel the world around you. Hear the silence amongst the orchestra of nature and avoid the noise of society. The Indian paintbrush is my muse to create, its vibrant colors dancing along the canvas of my journal. My little piece of tranquility in the madness.