The wonder of pansies growing anywhere.

Pansies by Michael Raymond May 2007


The wonders of the universe never cease to amaze me.

I came upon an amazing sight today. It was in a parking lot a good 100 feet from the nearest plant life. There was no soil to speak of, just a crack in the concrete through which life had sprung.

It was hot today, easily 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I never got used to the Celsius nonsense. No rain had fallen in about a week, it being August. Yet, where there should have been nothing but dust and tar, here were a pair of pansies thrusting their beauty to the hot blue sky.

Why, I asked myself, did flowers grow here and not in the garden beside the house? There, they have shade and water on a regular basis. Why here?

Then I remembered seeing a documentary about Africa. People live and flourish despite all that nature and man can throw at them. From the tundra to the desert, life persists.

Perhaps it is just their turn, these pansies.

Is there a constant level of life force in the universe? Does it ebb and flow like the tides, allowing living things of all sorts to exist, now here, now there, but everywhere too? Does not the little ant struggle just as we do to get out of danger? Little fish swim like mad to get away from the bigger ones.

When you cut the grass, does it hurt? If you put an end to that living thing, somewhere else the balance must be maintained. Thus, pansies grow.