The Impermanence of Flowers

This is an old oil painting of mine, of a Stargazer Lily that grew in a perennial garden I planted years ago at a house we no longer live in. I love this passage that I’m putting along with it, by Thich Nhat Hanh about the impermanence of flowers. So true, how brief a time we have to enjoy the beauty of flowers – whether growing in a garden or arranged in a vase celebrating a special day – before their color and scent fades and their petals and leaves fold up and wither away. Every time I see this painting, memories come flooding back in of my old garden and the days when my children were very young and played outside in the grass while I planted and weeded. Luckily, one way we can preserve the impermanent aspect of nature and the impact it has on our lives is by painting it. Photography, too, can enliven a time and a sense of place…the same with the written word.

The Buddha taught that everything is impermanent – flowers, tables, mountains, political regimes, bodies, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness. We cannot find anything that is permanent. Flowers decompose, but knowing this does not prevent us from loving flowers. In fact, we are able to love them more because we know how to treasure them while they are still alive. If we learn to look at a flower in a way that impermanence is revealed to us, when it dies, we will not suffer. Impermanence is more than an idea. It is a practice to help us touch reality. – Thich Nhat Hanh