Oleander

I was walking one evening near dusk along a desolate field. It was about a mile and a half into my walk when I came upon it. It was the second most beautiful flower I had ever seen in the somewhat mid-ranged point in my life I found myself in at that time. When I first saw it I could hardly believe my eyes. I rubbed them to make sure it was not a mirage I was seeing. I even blinked my eyes three times to make sure but there it stood. A lone and lovely vibrant flower living and growing beside a cliff. I knelt down beside it to get a closer view.

As I studied this gorgeous creation I heard in my ears a distant and recognizable sound. It was the sound of thunder vibrating across the desolate field and beyond the distant scarred mountains. I turned to look toward the sound and I saw what I feared I had heard. It was a distant storm approaching. I could tell it was a violent and destructive storm. The only good thing about it was that it was moving very slowly. I would soon learn it was not moving slowly enough.

I turned my attention back to the lone and lovely vibrant flower living and growing in the desolate field beside a cliff and that is when I recognized the flower for what it really was. I knew this lone and lovely vibrant flower living and growing in the desolate field beside a cliff had killed many before. If not this particular one then one of its own kind had killed many innocents. I turned to look at the approaching storm and could tell the closer it got the more intense it was getting. That is when it dawned on me that I had a decision to make. Perhaps the most difficult decision I would ever be called on to make.

I knew that I had two choices before me. I could pick or dig up this lone and lovely vibrant flower living and growing in the desolate field beside a cliff and take it home with me. I could then either replant it or put it in a vase. I thought to myself, “sure it would get to live a few more days but in unfamiliar surroundings and then it would die.”

My second choice was to leave this lone and lovely vibrant flower living and growing in the desolate field beside a cliff right where it was. I knew the approaching storm would kill it instantly with its pounding rain and savage wind. I thought to myself, “it will surely die sooner than if I took it home with me but at least it will die in familiar surroundings.”

What to do? What to do? I knew it was time for me to make a choice that I would have to live with for the rest of my life. As I felt the rain drops hitting harder and harder and the wind was getting more and more pugnacious I knew I had made my choice just in time. It may or may not have been the right choice but I knew it was the choice I had to make.

What did I do? That is a question that you may ask me of course and well expect me to answer. But wouldn't the more pertinent question be, what would you have done?

 

 

The End