Those beautiful moments break our hearts because they go so quickly. The butterfly won’t land on your finger for long. It will fly. The flower will bloom and it will wither; the children will grow up.

I read that the combination of a Larkspur flower and a Protea signifies that better days are ahead. I included their buds in their respective pieces as a reminder of their passing stages; of the beauty of unrealized potential and the pain of waiting for something to bloom.

When we can hope in better days to come, we can take in whatever fleeting experience we may be having now. It may be unbearably hard. We may be waiting for the bud to bloom, we may be mourning the withering of something really beautiful. Or we may be having an encounter with transcendent beauty Itself. I’m beginning to think that the reality of life is that we’re experiencing all of it, almost all at once, almost all of the time.

So, let’s hope for the better days to come. Let’s take it all in.