SUNDAY

There is very little light in my room and so I thought I would buy some dried flowers and put them in a vase. I have never looked at dried flowers before - my Mother used to buy them and I hated them because they were plastic flowers that looked dusty and faded and terrible. But today they are a wonder to behold - holly berries, dogwood, ginko, cranberry - they are all so beautiful. And in their vases are deep reservoirs of stone, sand, colored rocks, pear potpourri - I had no idea that you could fill a vase with these things and I did not know why you would. But the vases were filled with flowers and these wonderful things. But why?

It occurred to me on the way home that since dried flowers are a form of flower, holly berries, dogwood, ginko, cranberry could be their nutrients - their water. What happened to the flowers had happened to the water. The water is taken away from both and what is left. But why did water take so many different forms? There are all sorts of ways that we are nourished. There are stones, sand, colored rocks, pear potpourri. And I know I am forgetting others. Many others. It is not clear when water is water. Water just seems like water. When it is gone, though, you want to say thank you. You start to see all about what water really does. You start to see what it is. It begins to take shape.