Cut Flowers

Why is it that just when the irises are at their peak the wind picks up and the rain falls, knocking them to the ground, bending their stems to the point of no return?  Perhaps it is because then they need to be cut and brought into the house where they will be enjoyed more often.  

Dear Giver of all things, you are in the bright blooming trees and flowers and in the winds and rain that remove the color, petals and stems.  You give your human family the gift of spectrum, of cycle, of perspective.  Help us to notice the ebbs and flows, the floods and the droughts, the noise and the silence so that we may be able to discern the benefits within it all.  Let us grow and guide us through the way we understand and accept the spectrum.  Amen.