On Geraniums

I had recently changed careers from a high profile, high stress, and highly dangerous job to something with little to no responsibility. My mind needed a break and I was tired of the politics behind every decision I made. My old job felt wrong to my beliefs. I found that working in an environment like that made me view people as problems. I found the bad in people before I saw the good.

So by taking a tremendous pay cut I moved into something more simple. At first it was hard to relax with such mindless and basic tasks. They required little thought and almost no critical thinking. One of my tasks was to maintain the landscape in the area. Mostly pulling weeds and trimming bushes, but my favorite part was to trim the Geraniums.

I'm sure I had seen Geraniums before but never really paid any attention. A Geranium has several green like leaves arranged almost as if it were a tiny bush. Later flowers begin to bloom forming several small flowers which make up a very pretty bigger flower. Over time some of the mini flowers begin to die and lose their petals making the larger flower look flawed.

So each day I would come outside and trim all the large flowers that seemed to be unpleasant to the eye. These were obviously ugly and looked like dying twigs. I think little argument could be made that they needed to go. So I cut away each day.

After about a week I noticed I could not see any of the “obviously” ugly ones as they were all gone, but I could tell which ones were about to start losing their flowers. I then began cutting away all the ones that were now slightly ugly. It took more work to visualize which ones were going to be bad in such a large arrangement of Geraniums. Over the next week I would only notice the slightly flawed ones and would trim them immediately.

This went on for another week. An older lady approached me. She commented on how I did such a good job on the landscaping and on how beautiful the Geraniums were. I looked down and realized I hadn't noticed. I completely forgot how pretty they were. I could only see the flawed ones because that is what I had to fix.

I felt slightly embarrassed that over time I completely forgot about the beauty of the flower and how critical I became of anything I considered slightly flawed. The fact is every Geranium at one point had some kind of flaw over time. Maybe a mistake in the direction it chose to grow, or a wind burst that knocked a few petals off. Really so many variables could have affected how each Geranium grew without it having much choice in the matter.

Interestingly by now I hope one could see that Geraniums have taught me a deeper lesson on people. As I mentioned in my prior job it was easier to view the people that weren't up to par... you know the ones who were “obviously” a problem. If you were to only see the ugly in them and remove them you would be left with the next group to go....the “slightly” flawed ones. This would continue on and on until no one was left.

The fact is that every one of us are slightly flawed and at times have been obviously a problem to at least one group of people or another. It is OK to be flawed. But the next time you go out and see someone who just does not meet your standard for whatever reason...try, for fun, to find something in them that one would find appealing. Over time we will look at the good in people.

I was in a bit of a feel good kind of mood today and came up with this. I have since been fortunate enough to retire in my mid thirties making a few cuts here and there and literally have so much time to think of things like this. It has been amazing to be able to think with a clearer head. Feel free to enjoy or hate the above piece and share any thoughts you may have. Thanks for reading.

wow, I think you may have helped me finally find the perfect inspiration for my tattoo I was telling you about! This was so thought provoking and just plain lovely to read. Thank you

ETA: I guess you posted this about the same time I joined/ was going through my own personal drama- I wish I had read this way back then. It really is so insightful in my eyes.

reply to post by chelsdh


haha thx...idk why i wrote it....was in a weird moment...thx

What a lovely message this thread has to offer! I'm stumped as to why there are so few replies.

We are all flawed, and we should remember that before we pass judgement or dismiss, and we are all beautiful too, but sometimes you have to look a bit harder to see that in someone, doesn't ever mean it's not there!

Thank you

... and thank you Chelsdh for sending me here!