05/19/2026
I have been making a conscious effort to stop and savor the flowers. The tulips bloomed quickly, almost urgently, and then disappeared just as fast. Some days of intense sun scorched most of them within days. Tulips planted in direct sunlight were burned and wilted within a week, their petals shriveled at the edges as if summer had arrived too early.
During the early weeks of April, I walked to work each morning watching the city slowly unfold into color. What began as tightly closed buds transformed into brilliant tulips in shades of yellow, pink, and deep red with a vibrant yellow center.
I found myself stopping on Park Avenue, pulling out my camera to take photo while others hurried around me on their commutes.
“This is so beautiful — it should last longer. It’s not fair that it’s already ending. I NEED more time with this.”
When we stand in front of something beautiful and silently demand that it last longer than it does, we stop experiencing the moment and begin grieving it prematurely. The tulips will only bloom for two weeks. Entire seasons change while we are looking down at our phones or rushing to our next obligation. No amount of demanding that beauty should stay longer can change its impermanence — it only robs us of the brief, extraordinary moment we were given to witness it.
I watched tulips close their petals during periods of excessive sunlight, protecting themselves from the heat. It felt almost human — a quiet instinct for survival. On rainy mornings, droplets clung perfectly to the petals because tulips are waterproof, each flower holding tiny beads of water like glass.
Taking photos is a form of savoring. “I want to stop and smell the flowers and appreciate this beauty — and I will, fully — because I know that all great things do not last forever.”
Accepting reality is not resigning your preferences. It’s an honest acknowledgment that impermanence is part of what makes something so special. Although we cannot control the duration of these moments, being present in their moment is what we actually have control over.
