Late Summer Flowers

In the spring the tulips and daffodils are show stoppers.  After the barren scenery of winter, they attract attention.  They get notices and praised.  Spring is a good time to be a flower.



Then summer comes and the garden sets in with a variety of flowers.  As the new ones bloom first for the season, they are noticed. 


But by late summer the flowers sometimes look a little ragged.  The bugs have feasted on the plants.  The dry spells have taken their toll. 

Then the autumn flowers begin.  The mums, oh, the mums!



I reflect that the seasons of life are like that--barren, then joy filled, then bug eaten, then hopeful, then glorious, then quiet and hidden.  It is not a straight line up or down.  Life follows circles of up and down and joy and sorrow.  If it were all joy, all beauty, how would we recognize or appreciate it?