Meditating in my backyard in the bed of lavender flowers brought my mind to great peace. As I sat with the flowers, I discovered this peace brought clarity and understanding to my emotions connected to the constant daydreams flowing through my mind. This piece reflects on these daydreams.
As the flower’s petals start twisting back and forth, my fingers move along with this dance. My legs twist back and forth in unison. The flower and I agree that unity is the best policy, as I shake its stem with my two fingers, my hand still twisting back and forth. In a society where policies fall underneath the cracks of the earth, where the earth shouts for more water to pour out of the sky and less heat to cause the soil to become dry and cracked, we unite! This flower has done nothing other than share its precious oxygen with me, but I, the human, have the power to clench my fists and pluck it from the soil, its home, so that I can admire its beauty. But the flower will wither in my hands, and the creases in my hands will sink as deep as the water can sink into the soil beneath my two feet. I open my hands so they are stretched out flat and turn my palms to the cumulus clouds and light blue sky. The flower is free from my grasp, free from dancing with me, and free from the pressure against its body.
I take in the silky texture of the lavender petals and press my eyelids shut. A woman in a silky, lavender dress swaying on a sidewalk without any cracks glitters in the orange sun that soaks into her long black hair. She lives inside the square photo on Google Images I came across while the clicking sound of my mouse pad made it clear to me that every image starts and ends with the clicking sound of a human being snapping photos of human beings. The pulse in my hands quickens as I process that the people taking these photos of strangers always have those people’s life stories embedded in their minds, in the 20 seconds for the photo to be processed. My knees slowly stretch themselves up from the soil. For 20 seconds, I keep my gaze fixated on the lavender flower.
Within these collected moments, internal freedom becomes my compass to navigate the winding roads of life. These collected moments are my zen to meditate peacefully in the presence of the nonjudgmental, lavender flower.