Consider the flowers,oh friends of the earth.
For whom do they bloom ?
Is not a seed planted in the earth to die.
Will not this tiny seedling silently grow 
in the darkness of the earth, struggling to
burst through the crust into the freedom of 
the wind, rain and warmth of the sun ?

For whom will the flower freely give of it's beauty,
it's fragrance, it's essence ?  Will the flower only
bloom for one and not another?  Or  with hold of
it's fragrance  from some  and not another ?
Yet we take of it's beauty, drink of it's fragrance,
with never a thought of it's sacrifice.

by: Richard D.Valentine 1997 c