Fortunately for all of us, award-winning author Sharman Russell is a sensational writer and a student of science and has applied herself to these questions in her book Anatomy of a Rose, Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers . Someone is talking to me about pollination biology. I cannot listen as we walk uphill, because I am being knocked out by the flowers. Red penstemon, yellow daisies, orange poppies, purple flax explode in the gravel, rippling like banners up hills and down arroyos. Their colors are the visible metaphor of joy.
Flowers are celebratory.
I have been invited to a party. I used to live here, in this homeland, in this desert, in these hills, among these flowers. If I lived here still, I would be happy. When Nature whispers beauty, I do not always respond well. Feverishly I want to get inside.